The Book of Master Lie (Lieh-Tzu / Liezi)

IF

The Book of Master Lie
A Taoist Classic

Translated and Annotated
by Thomas Cleary

©2009 Thomas Cleary
All Rights Reserved

Contents

I. Celestial Signs

II. The Yellow Emperor

Ill. King Mu of Zhou

IV. Confucius

V. Questions of Tang

VI. Effort and Destiny

VII. Yang Zhu

VIII. The Tally of the Teaching

Translator’s Introduction

The Book of Master Lie, (Liezi/Lieh-tzu) is a Taoist classic of

uncertain origin and history, named for an obscure individual of unproven
identity or existence. Records of its constitution and transmission are
controversial.

And yet the book of Master Lie is one of the greatest works of
cognitive art and educational science that has ever been produced. If it has
been undervalued, that is precisely because of its excellence.

In Taoist terms, all of this is quite understandable. The primary
classic of Taoism states, “Great achievement seems to be missing
something, but its use is inexhaustible. Great fulfillment seems empty, but
its function is endless. Great straightforwardness seems inarticulate, great
skillfulness seems clumsy, great surplus is kept out of sight.”

The historical existence and identity of Master Lie remain matters of
some dispute, but that is also a natural consequence of the way of life this
literary figure represents, that of the so-called real human being.

Over time, the term real human came to be used for honorific titles
assigned by Chinese courts to famous Taoists of the past, and in some

contexts for imaginary people on another plane of existence, but it

originally meant an uncorrupted person with the full range of natural human
potential intact, available, and functional.

According to Taoist lore, real human beings were difficult to find,
being hidden by design in the texture of life. They had associations, but no
organizations. They were prudent about open display of those dimensions
of themselves that extended beyond conventional concepts of human
potential. This practice of maintaining low profiles was adopted for self-
development as well as self-preservation, and also to protect members of
ordinary society from transfer of worldly greed and aggression into the
domain of spiritual seeking.

The ways of the real people were obscure in comparison to the
dazzling displays of court wizards who exploited the desires of emperors to
be immortal, or cult leaders who organized their own governments and
militias and founded their own dynasties. According to the Taoist classic

Chuang-tzu (Zhuangzi),

Real people in ancient times were just and dutiful in their
behavior, without being partisan. They seemed to be lacking,
but did not accept anything. They were used to being alone, but
were not rigid about it. They expounded their openness,
without embellishment. They were so mellow they seemed to
be joyful. They acted when there was no choice. They were
calm and collected to such a depth as to enhance their health,
and gracious to such a degree as to stabilize their character.
They were upright, appearing to be like society, yet
transcendent and impossible to constrain. They were remote, as
if they liked isolation; they were so simple they forgot to speak.

They made law into a body, made courtesy into wings, made
knowledge into timing, made character into an example to
follow.

Apart from a few firm historical traces, like traditional descriptions

of its namesake the fragmentary legends of the transmission of the book of

Master Lie are essentially suggestive. Attributed to a sage of the 4" century
BCE., it is alleged to have been in vogue at the imperial court for a time in
the early 2" century BCE, then disappeared into the private sector.
Recovered in a scattered state and reconstituted by a famous scholar in the
late 1‘' century BCE, the legend continues, it was edited and reduced from
twenty chapters to its current eight chapters.

There is no news of this text in tradition for several hundred years
after that, until the last decades of the 4" century CE, when the first known
commentator, writing about 370, prefixes an account of his own
grandfather’s recovery and reconstruction of a scattered text some fifty
years earlier, around 320. As this commentary is the earliest firm historical
evidence of the work, some scholars have attributed the book of Master Lie
itself to this 4 century commentator.

Disappearing from the light of history for hundreds of years again,
the book of Master Lie reemerges in the 8" century, when Emperor

Xuanzong of the cosmopolitan Tang dynasty (619-906), an admirer of

Taoism, calls for submission of Taoist texts to the throne and establishes an
academic degree in Taoism for aspirants to civil service. At this point the
book of Master Lie appears once again, and is designated a classic in 742,
to be one of four Taoist classics for the official curriculum. The other
designated classics are the Zao Te Ching (Daodejing), the Chuang-tzu
(Zhuangzi), and the Wen-tzu (Wenzi).

The Book of Master Lie has also remained a hidden treasure for
reasons of cultural conditioning and political patronage. One such factor
surrounds the acknowledged but ill-defined Buddhist element in this
allegedly Taoist text. While borrowed Buddhist terminology abounds in
Taoist literature, the Book of Master Lie represents Buddhist teachings in
purely native Chinese terms.

The reputation of the Book of Master Lie was nevertheless affected
by its association with Buddhism. Successive waves of xenophobia
branded Buddhism as a “foreign” religion in China, more than once
resulting in book-burnings. The Book of Master Lie was declared mixed
with Buddhism in the very first commentary on the text in the 4" century
CE, when translation of Buddhist scriptures into Chinese was proceeding
apace, and non-Chinese people were taking over part of China.

In the form it is known in today, the text of The Book of Master Lie

was allegedly reconstituted after the disintegration of the monumental Han

Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE). While the Han order was failing, changes in
culture proceeded apace. New Taoist cults emerged, some sectors of the
aristocracy retreated into alchemy, immortalism, or antinomianism, and
Buddhism flowed into China from South and Central Asia. The rich
amalgam of liberated thought that this period produced is abundantly
reflected in the Book of Master Lie.

Taoism has perplexed conventional scholars even in the East, not
only because of the bewildering variety of its manifestations, but also
because of the esoteric, technical nature of its literature. Even those stories
that ordinarily pass as folk tales are used in Taoist schools to convey inner
content. As in the case of Chan Buddhist stories, this inner content
becomes manifest as the mind develops specific perceptions, accessed by
means of the mystic exercises of which they are analogs. Thus the stories
are also used as testing devices, to gauge mental state by reaction, as well as
blueprints for further development.

In a Taoist work, one and the same text may appear to contain
different doctrines, which the dogmatist may interpret as confusion or
contradiction, the literalist may view as interpolation or corruption, but the
Taoist employs as instruments to cultivate depth perception. Meditation
practices may be disguised as metaphysical or philosophical discourses,

mental postures as social policies, and contemplative procedures as ascetic

exercises and aesthetic raptures. The Book of Master Lie uses all of these
devices, featuring figures of myth, legend, and history in sayings and stories

that both entertain and enlighten.

I. Celestial Signs

Master Lie lived in the game preserve of Zheng for forty years without
anyone recognizing him. The ruler of the state and the nobles and grandees
looked upon him as one of the peasants. During a famine he was going to
go to Wei; his disciples said, “If you go with no prospect of returning, how
will we call with questions, and how will you teach? Haven’t you heard the

word of Lin, Master of Pot Hill?”

Master Lie laughed and said, “What does Pot-Hill have to say?
Even so, the master once spoke to the blind man Elder Darkness, and I

stood by listening; PI try to tell you what he said:

“There is that which is born and that which is unborn; there is that
which changes and that which is unchanging. The unborn gives birth to
that which is born; the unchanging produces change. What is born cannot
but be born; what changes cannot but change; therefore they are always
being born, always changing. What is always being born, always changing,
is never not living, never not changing; yin and yang are thus, the four

seasons are thus.

“The unborn seems singular; the unchanging is cyclic, with no final
limit. No end can be found to the course of the seemingly singular. A book
of the Yellow Emperor says, The valley spirit does not die; this is called the
mystic female. The opening of the mystic female is called the root of heaven

and earth. Continuous, as if it were there, its application is effortless.

“So what gives birth to things and beings is not born, what changes
things and beings is unchanging. Natural birth, natural change, natural
formation, natural coloring, natural intelligence, natural strength, natural
waning and waxing—f you refer to these as that which produces and
changes, forms and colors, enlightens and empowers, destroys and revives,

999

this is incorrect.

Master Lie said, “In ancient times, sages summed up heaven and
earth in terms of yin and yang. If what has form originates in no form, then
where do heaven and earth come from?

“Therefore it is said that there was a cosmic evolution, a cosmic
origin, a cosmic beginning, and a cosmic elemental. In the cosmic
evolution, energy is not yet manifest. The cosmic origin is the beginning of
energy. The cosmic beginning is the beginning of form. The cosmic

elemental is the beginning of substance.

“When energy, form, and substance are all present yet not separated,
that is called the undifferentiated, meaning that myriad things are mutually
undifferentiated and not yet separate from one another. You cannot see it
when you look, you cannot hear it when you listen, you cannot find it when
you follow, so it is called evolution. Evolution has no formal boundaries;
evolution undergoes change constituting a unity; the one changes into

seven, seven turns into nine; nine’s change is final, then it reverts to one.

“One is the beginning of form. What is clear and light rises to

become heaven, what is opaque and heavy sinks to become earth, while

blended energy becomes humanity. Therefore heaven and earth contain

vitality from which myriad things and beings are produced.”

Master Lie said, “Heaven and earth do not have complete efficiency,
sages do not have complete ability, myriad beings do not have complete
vitality. Therefore heaven’s job is to create and to cover, earth’s job is to
form and support, sages’ job is to teach and civilize, everyone’s job is what

they’re suited for.

“Thus heaven is lacking in some ways, while earth is excellent is
some ways. Some things are inaccessible to sages, while some things are
accessible to anyone. Why? Because that which creates and covers cannot
form and support, that which forms and supports cannot teach and civilize,
they who teach and civilize cannot deviate from the appropriate, the

appropriately determined does not depart from its position.

“So the course of heaven and earth is either yin or yang; the
teaching of sages is either humanity or justice; the proper state of things is
either soft or hard. These all conform to the appropriate, and cannot depart

from their positions.

“So there is birth, and there is that which gives birth to birth; there is
form, and there is that which forms form. There is sound, and there is that
which makes sound sound; there is color, and there is that which colors

color. There is flavor, and there is that which flavors flavor.

“What birth gives birth to dies, but what gives birth to birth never
ends. What form forms is substance, but what forms form has none. The
sound made by sound is audible, but what makes sound sound is not
emitted. What color colors is visible, but what colors color is not manifest.
What flavor flavors can be tasted, but what gives flavor to flavor cannot be

tasted.

“These are all functions of the uncreated; it can be yin or yang, soft
or hard, short or long, round or square, vital or morbid, hot or cold, floating
or sinking, high or low, appearing or disappearing, dark or light, sweet or
bitter, foul or fragrant. It has no knowledge and no ability, yet there is

nothing it does not know, nothing it cannot do.”

When Master Lie traveled to Wei, as they were eating a meal on the
way his followers found a hundred-year-old skull. Pulling out the tangle of
weeds and pointing to the skull, he looked back at his disciple Bai Feng and
said, “Only he and I know we’ve never been born and never die. Is he to
grieve, after all? Am I to rejoice?

“How many species there are! Ifa frog becomes a quail, in water it
becomes water plantain; at water’s edge it becomes moss. Growing on high
ground it becomes plantain; when plantain is on a dung-heap, it becomes
crowfoot grass. Crowfoot roots become maggots, the blades become
butterflies. Butterflies are evanescent; changing into grubs, they hatch
under stoves; shaped like sloughed-off skins, they’re called parrot-plucks.
In a thousand days parrot-plucks transmute into birds called dry leftover
bones. The saliva of dry leftover bones birds becomes a kind of insect,
which turns into a vinegar bug. The vinegar-eating bug produces vinegar
flies, vinegar flies produce bacon beetles, bacon beetles produce

mosquitoes, mosquitoes produce cucumber flies.

“Sheep liver turns to madder, horse blood turns to phosphorus,
human blood turns to fox-fire, kites become sparrow-hawks, sparrow-

hawks become cuckoos, with cuckoos eventually turning back into

sparrow-hawks, swallows become clams, field mice become quails, rotten
melons become fish, leeks become amaranth, old ewes become monkeys,
fish eggs become insects. Animals on certain mountains reproduce by
parthenogenesis, some water birds reproduce by gazing at each other.
There’s a totally female species called big waist, and a totally male species
called immature ants. Sensitive men are aroused without marrying,

sensitive women get pregnant without marrying.

"Hou Qi was born from a giant footprint, Yi Yin was born in a
hollow mulberry tree. Dragonflies are born in moisture, flies are born in
wine lees. Weeds grow by bamboo, old bamboo produces insects, insects
produce panthers, panthers produce horses, horses produce humans. People
eventually resolve into elements; all things and all beings come from

elements and all go back to elements.”

The Book of the Yellow Emperor says, “When form moves, it
doesn’t produce form, it produces shadows. When sound travels, it doesn’t
produce voices, it produces echoes. When nothingness stirs, it doesn’t
produce nonbeing, it produces being.”

Form is something that must have an end. Do heaven and earth
end? Along with us, they come to an end. Is the end final? I don’t know.
The Tao ends in basic beginninglessness, it reaches finality in original
impermanence. What is born returns to an unborn state, what has form

returns to a formless state.

What is not born is not the fundamental unborn, what has no form is
not the fundamental formless. What is born must logically come to an end,
what comes to an end cannot but end; similarly, what is born cannot but
come into being, yet to wish to perpetuate its existence and curtail its

demise is to be deluded about inevitability.

The vital spirit is an allotment from heaven, the physical body is the
allotment of earth. The celestial is clear and diffused, the earthly is opaque

and condensed. When the vital spirit leaves the body, each returns to its

reality. Hence the term ghost. Ghosthood means return, returning to the
true home. The Yellow Emperor said, “When the vital spirit goes through
its door, and the physical body returns to its roots, how can the self still be

there?”

From birth until death, there are four major changes in people:
childhood, youth, old age, death.
In childhood, your energy is unified and your will is whole; this is

the epitome of harmony. Things do not affect it; no virtue is more than this.

In youth, blood energy overflows, you’re filled and aroused by

desires and thoughts, and influenced by things, so virtue deteriorates.

In old age, desires and thoughts soften, the body tends toward rest;
nothing gets ahead of you, and though not as complete as in childhood,

compared to youth you are at ease.

As for death, that is going to rest, returning to the ultimate.

When Confucius traveled to Taishan, he saw Rong Qiji on the
outskirts of Cheng, clad in deerskin with a rope belt, strumming a lute and
singing. Confucius asked, “What are you so happy about?”

He replied, “I have many reasons for happiness. Heaven gives birth
to myriad beings, but humans alone are noble; I am human, so I’m happy.
In discrimination between males and females, males are ranked higher than
females, so the male is respected; since I am a man, this is my second
happiness. Some babies are stillborn, some die in infancy; I am already
ninety years old, so this is my third happiness. Poverty is normal for
scholars, death is the end for people; awaiting death in a normal state, what
should I be melancholy about?”

Confucius said, “Good! Here’s someone who can relax himself!”

Lin Lei was nearly a hundred years old. In spring he’d put on a
leather coat and glean the harvested fields, singing as he went along. When

Confucius traveled to Wei, he saw him in the fields; turning to his disciples,

he said, “That old man is worth talking to—let’s try to ask him something.”
Zigeng requested permission to go. Catching up with him at the edge of a
field, he faced him and said in a tone of lament, “Have you no regrets, that
you can go along singing and gleaning?” Lin Lei went right on without
stopping, singing all the while. Zigeng kept after him, so he looked up and
answered, “What have I to regret?”

Zigeng said, “You didn’t work hard when you were young, you
didn’t compete with your generation as you matured, you’re growing old
with no wife or children, and you are soon going to die—what kind of

happiness could you have, that you sing as you glean?”

Lin Lei laughed and said, “The reasons for my happiness are
available to everyone, but they take them for misery instead. The fact that I
didn’t work hard when young and didn’t compete with contemporaries as I
matured is why I have lived so long. The fact that I’m growing old without

wife or children and am soon going to die is why I can be so happy.”

Zigeng said, “Long life is a human desire, and people detest death;

how can you enjoy the idea of dying?”

Lin Lei said, “Death and birth are a round-trip, so when I die here,
how do I know I won’t be born elsewhere? So how do I know they’re not
equivalent? And how do I know it’s not delusion to strive for life? And

how do I know my death now will not be better than my life in the past?”

Zigeng didn’t understand what Lin Lei said, so he went back and
told Confucius. Confucius said, “I knew he was worth talking to; and he

was. However, his attainment is not consummate.”

Zigeng got tired of studying. He told declared to Confucius, “I want
a rest.”

Confucius said, “There is no rest while alive.”

Zigeng said, “Then is there nowhere for me to rest?”

Confucius said, “There is. Gaze upon the grave, and you will know
your resting place.”

Zigeng said, “How great death is! Cultured people rest therein,
petty people are prostrate therein.”

Confucius said, “So you realize this! People all know the pleasure
of life but not the pain of life; they know the fatigue of old age, but not the
freedom of old age; they know the horror of death but not the peace of

death.

“Master Yan said, ‘How excellent was death for the ancients—the
benevolent found peace therein, the inhumane were subdued thereby.’
Death is a return of virtue; the ancients referred to the dead as people who

have returned.

“To refer to the dead as people who have returned means that the
living are travelers. Those who go traveling and don’t know how to return

are the lost.

“When one person is lost, the whole society repudiates him, but

when all the world is lost, no one knows what’s wrong.

“If someone leaves his homeland and his relatives, gives up his job,
and wanders the four quarters never to return, what kind of person is this?
Society will consider him a mad vagabond. Now suppose someone takes
care of himself, takes pride in his abilities, cultivates his reputation, and
boasts to the world without restraint—what kind of person is this? Society

will consider him intelligent and clever.

“These two are both wrong, yet society accepts one but not the

other. Only sages know who to deal with and who to avoid.”

10

Someone asked Master Lie, “Why do you esteem emptiness?”

Master Lie said, “Emptiness has no esteem.”
9

Master Lie said, “It’s not the name; there’s nothing like quietude,
nothing like emptiness. By quietude and emptiness you find your abode; by
taking and giving you lose your place. When there is fanfare about
benevolence and duty only after things have been ruined, there is no

possibility of restoration.”

11

Yu Xiong said, “Evolution goes on unending, heaven and earth shift
imperceptibly; who is aware of this? That is why things decreasing in one
place increase in another, what is complete here is lacking there. Decrease
and increase, completeness and lack, go along with life, go along with
death. Going and coming are a continuity, with no perceptible gap; who is
aware of this? All energy does not evolve at once, all form does not
deteriorate at once. A person’s body and mind differ every day, while skin,
nails, and hair are shed as they grow. There is ceaseless change from
infancy on; one is not aware of it while it’s going on, but only realizes after

it’s happened.”

12

In the country of Qi there was someone who worried that the sky
would fall and the earth would crumble, and he’d have no place to rest. He
worried so much he couldn’t sleep, and he lost his appetite.

Now someone who was worried about his worrying went to
enlighten him, saying, “The sky is only a mass of air. The air is everywhere
—as we bend, stretch, and breathe, it is circulating in the sky all day long;

how can you worry it'll fall?”

The man said, “If the sky really is a mass of air, won’t the sun,

moon, and stars fall?”

The one trying to enlighten him said, “The sun, moon, and stars are
luminous bodies in the mass of air; even if they fell, they couldn’t cause any

damage.”
The other man said, “What about the earth crumbling?”

The one trying to enlighten him said, “The earth is just a mass of

matter, filling everywhere—there is no place without matter. Whenever we

walk or take a step we are always on the surface of the earth, so why worry

about it crumbling?”

Relieved, the man was very joyful. The one who enlightened him

was also relieved and joyful.

Hearing of this, Changluzi laughed and said, “Rainbows, clouds,
and fog, wind and rain, the four seasons—these are things that massed
energy makes in the sky. Mountains, rivers, oceans, metal and stone, fire
and wood—these are things that massed form makes on earth. If you know
sky and earth are masses of air and matter, how can you say they won’t

disintegrate?

“The universe is a minute object in the midst of space. The largest
of existents, it is certainly hard to comprehend, certainly hard to fathom. To
worry about its disintegration is indeed too remote, but then to say it won’t

disintegrate isn’t right either.

“The universe cannot but disintegrate, so it must wind up

dissolving. At the time of its disintegration, who wouldn’t be anxious?”

Master Lie, hearing of this, laughed and said, “It’s wrong to say the
universe will disintegrate, and it’s also wrong to say the universe will not
disintegrate. Whether or not it will disintegrate is something one cannot

know. Even so, we are one in the former case and we are one in the latter

case. So while alive we don’t know death, and when dead we don’t know
life. When we come, we don’t know of going; when we go, we don’t know
of coming. How can I concern myself with whether or not the universe will

disintegrate?”

13

Shun asked an assistant, “Can the Tao be possessed?”

He said, “Even your body is not your possession—how can you
possess the Tao?”

Shun said, “If my body is not my possession, who owns it?”

He said, “It is a form entrusted by the universe. Life is not our
possession; it is a harmony entrusted by the universe. Nature and destiny
are not your possessions; they are order entrusted by the universe. Progeny

are not your possessions, they are shells entrusted by the universe.

“Therefore we go without knowing where, abide without knowing
what to keep, eat without knowing what to consume. The powerful

positivity of the universe is energy—how can it be possessed?”

14

Mr. Guo of Qi was very rich, while Mr. Xiang of Song was very

poor. Mr. Xiang went to Qi to ask Mr. Guo for the art of wealth.

Mr. Guo told him, “I am good at stealing. After my first year

stealing, I could get by; after two years, I had enough; after three years, I

was very prosperous. After that, I could contribute to the welfare of the

community.”

Mr. Xiang was delighted, but though he understood the word
stealing he didn’t understand the right way to steal. Climbing over fences
and breaking into houses, he took whatever he could find.

Before long he was arrested for theft, and the goods he had
accumulated were confiscated. Thinking Mr. Guo had misled him, Mr.
Xiang went to complain to him. Mr. Guo asked, “How did you steal?” Mr.
Xiang told him how. Mr. Guo exclaimed, “Ha! Have you strayed this far
from the right way to steal? Let me explain it to you.

“I have heard that heaven has seasons, earth has yields. I steal the
seasonal yields of heaven and earth, the moisture of clouds and rain, the
fertility of mountains and wetlands, to grow my grain, plant my crops,
construct my fences, and build my house. On land I steal birds and beasts,
from the water I steal fish and turtles. It’s all stealing! Crops, earth and
wood, birds and beasts, fish and turtles, are all produced by heaven—how
could they belong to me? Yet I steal from heaven with impunity.

“As for gold, jade, and jewels, grain and cloth, goods and money,
things that people collect, are they given by heaven? If you steal them and

get punished, who is to blame?”

Mr. Xiang was very confused. He thought Mr. Guo was fooling him
again, so he went to Professor Dongguo to ask him about this.

Professor Dongguo said, “Isn’t your entire being stolen? Your life is
composed and your body is sustained by a combination of stolen yin and
yang; how then could external things be other than stolen?

“Truly indeed, heaven, earth, and myriad things and beings are not
separate from each other—to consider anything a possession is invariably
an illusion.”

“Mr. Guo’s stealing is the public way, so there is no penalty. Your
stealing is personal will, so you get punished. Those for whom there are the
public and the personal are thieves; those for whom there is neither the
public nor the personal are thieves too. Whether public or personal, these
are potencies of heaven and earth. For those who know the potencies of
heaven and earth, who is to be thought of as stealing, who is to be thought

of as not stealing?”

II. The Yellow Emperor
1

For fifteen years after assuming the throne, the Yellow Emperor was
delighted that everyone supported him; he nourished his natural life and
enjoyed the pleasures of the senses. In the process he became gaunt and
dark, confused and emotionally disturbed.

Then for another fifteen years he worried about disorder in the land;
using all his intelligence and mental energy, he managed the hundred clans.
In the process, he became gaunt and dark, confused and emotionally
disturbed.

Finally the Yellow Emperor lamented, “My fault has been excess.
Such is the trouble involved in taking care of oneself; such is the trouble of
governing everything.”

At this point he set aside his administrative activities, stopped
sleeping in his seraglio, sent away his servants, suspended musical
performances, cut down on cuisine, and retired into solitude to purify his
mind and get control over his body, taking no personal role in government

for three months.

Taking a nap one day, he dreamed he traveled to Shangri-la, west of
the province of Yan, north of the province of Tai, untold thousands of miles
from the country of Qi; it could not be reached by boat, carriage, or foot,
but only by spiritual travel. In that country there were no political leaders,
just a state of nature. The people had no habits or cravings, they were just
natural. They didn’t know to like life or to detest death, so there was no
premature death. They didn’t know to prefer themselves to others, so there
was no love or hatred. They didn’t know how to rebel or obey, so there was
no profit or harm. They had no attachments, so they had no fears. They
didn’t drown in water, didn’t burn in fire. They were not hurt by hitting,
were not pained by scratching. They rode the air like walking on the
ground, slept in space as if in bed. Clouds and fog did not obstruct their
vision, thunder did not distort their hearing, beauty and ugliness did not
distort their minds. Mountains and valleys did not trip them up, for they
only traveled in spirit.

When the Yellow Emperor woke up, he was happy and content.
Summoning his three deputies, he said to them, “I lived alone for three
months, purifying my mind and mastering my body, contemplating a way to
live and to govern; but I failed to grasp the art. Tired, I took a nap, and this

is what I dreamed. Now I know that the supreme Tao cannot be sought

subjectively. Now I realize this; now I have grasped this, yet I cannot tell it
to you.”

For the next twenty-eight years the whole land was at peace, like
that mythical country, until the Emperor passed on. The populace mourned

him for over two hundred years.

2

There is a mountain on an island in the ocean current where there
are spiritual people who ingest air and dew instead of grain. Their minds
are like deep springs, their bodies are like virgin girls. They have no
familiars or intimates; immortals and sages are their subjects. They do not
intimidate and do not get angry; the eager and honest are their servants.
They give no charity, yet everyone has enough; they do not accumulate or
save, yet they themselves have no lack. Yin and yang are always in
harmony, sun and moon are always clear, the four seasons are always
regular, wind and rain are always even, nursing is always timely, crops are
always abundant, there is no plague in the land, no early death among the

people, no pestilence among the animals, no apparitions of ghosts.

Master Lie’s teacher was Old Mr. Shang, and he associated with
Master Bai Gao. Having made progress on the Way of the two masters, he
returned riding the wind. Hearing of this, Scholar Yin went to stay with
Master Lie, not going home for several months. Whenever there was a
chance, he’d ask about his art, but Master Lie never answered. Resentful,
Scholar Yin asked leave to go, but Master Lie gave no directions. So
Scholar Yin withdrew. After a few months he went back again to follow
Master Lie, unable to get it out of his mind.

Master Lie said, “Why do you come and go so often?”

Scholar Yin said, “Before, when I sought guidance from you, you
didn’t speak to me, so I was angry at you. Now I’ve gotten over it, so ve
come back.”

Master Lie said, “I thought you’d understood then—are you so
shallow now? Stay a while, and I’Il tell you what I learned from my
teachers.

“After three years of working for my teacher and associating with
another, my mind dare not think of right and wrong, my mouth dare not
speak of gain and loss; that was the first time my teacher even glanced at
me. After five years, my mind again thought of right and wrong, my mouth
again spoke of gain and loss; that was the first time my teacher smiled at

me. After seven years, whatever I thought contained no right or wrong

anymore, whatever I said contained no gain or loss anymore; that was the
first time my teacher let me sit with him. After nine years, I thought freely
and spoke freely, and didn’t know whether I was right or wrong, adding or
detracting, or whether others were right or wrong, adding or detracting.
Nor did I know the master to be my teacher, or the other to be my
companion. There was no more inside or outside.

“After that, my eyes were like ears, my ears like my nose, my nose
like my mouth—all the same. My mind stilled, my body relaxed, my bones
and muscles all became flexible. I was unaware of what my body rested on,
or what my feet tread on. Going along with the wind east and west, like a
dry leaf, I didn’t know, after all, whether the wind was riding me or I was
riding the wind.

“Now you’ve hardly been at a teacher’s house for any time at all,
and already you’re complaining over and over. Your individual body may
not be taken by the air, your individual physical structure may not be
supported by the earth—how could you hope to walk in the sky and ride the
wind?”

Scholar Yin was very much ashamed. He bated his breath, not

daring to say any more.

Master Lie asked the Keeper of the Pass, “Complete people can
travel underwater without obstruction, walk on fire without getting burnt,
can go beyond all things without fear. How do they get to be this way?”

The Keeper of the Pass said, “This is the protection of pure energy,
not of a kind with cunning and cleverness, resolution and daring. Stay a
while and Pll tell you.

“Whatever has appearance, form, sound, or color is a thing. How
can things be so disparate? And which of them can take precedence, when
they are only forms?

“Things are created in the formless and end in the unalterable. How
can any who plumb this stop here? They live by measures without excess,
take refuge in a beginningless order, roam where things end and begin.
They unify their essence, nurture their energy, and store their power, to
commune with the creation of things.

“When they are like this, their nature is kept whole, their spirit has
no gaps—how can anything get access to them?

“When a drunken man falls from a cart, he may get hurt, but does
not die. His bones and joints are the same as other people’s, but his injury
is different from others because his spirit is whole. He doesn’t know when

he’s riding, and he doesn’t know when he’s falling either. Neither death nor

life, surprise nor fear, enter into his chest, so he is not frightened when he
encounters things.

“If even one who gains wholeness in wine is like this, how about
one who gains wholeness in Nature? Sages take refuge in Nature, so things
cannot harm them.”

5

Lie Yukou performed some archery for Elder Stupid Nobody.
Drawing the bow fully with a cup of water on his arm, he shot one arrow
after another in continuous succession, as still as a statue all the while.

Elder Stupid Nobody said, “This is deliberate shooting, not
spontaneous shooting. Suppose we climbed a high mountain and stood on a
precipice overlooking an abyss—could you shoot then?”

So they climbed a high mountain, where Nobody went out on a
precipice. Standing with his back to the abyss, heels hanging off the ledge,
he beckoned to Yukou to join him. Yukou fell prostrate on the ground,
running with sweat.

Elder Stupid Nobody said, “Complete people gaze into the blue sky
above, plunge into the center of the earth below, and run freely in the eight
directions without even a change of mood. Now you have a fearful

1”?

expression of aversion—your inner state must be very uneasy

6

There was a man of the Fan clan named Zihua who supported so
many private mercenaries that the whole country submitted to him. He was
a favorite of the ruler of Jin, and his status was higher than the top ministers
of state even though he held no office. Anyone he regarded specially would
be given a title by the state of Jin; anyone he particularly disdained would
be banished by the state of Jin. Those who flocked to his mansion were as
numerous as attendees at court.

Zihua had his mercenaries attack each other in battles of wits and
strive to overcome each other in contests of strength. Even if they were
wounded right before his eyes, he didn't care. They sported like this all day
and night, to the point where it had almost become a custom of the country.

Hesheng and Zibo were top henchmen of the Fan clan. Going on a
trip, they passed through a remote area where they lodged at the house of a
farmer, Shang Qiukai. During the night, Hesheng and Zibo were talking
about the prestige and influence of Zihua, who could cause the thriving to
perish and the lost to survive, impoverish the rich and enrich the poor.

Now Shang Qiukai, who had all along suffered hunger and cold,
overhead this. Inspired, he borrowed some provisions, loaded them in a

basket, and went to the estate of Zihua.

Zihua’s hangers-on were all hereditary aristocrats; they dressed in
silk, rode in fancy chariots, swaggered around gazing into the distance.
When they saw how old and decrepit Shang Qiukai was, his face burnt
black and his clothes unkempt, they all looked down on him. They treated
him with contempt, playing tricks on him, knocking and shoving him
around, doing as they pleased.

Through all this, Shang Qiukai never showed any sign of anger.
Eventually the hangers-on ran out of tricks and got tired of making fun of
him. Finally they took him up in a high tower, where someone claimed that
anyone who jumped off would get a reward of a hundred pieces of gold.
They all scrambled as if to respond, so Shang Qiukai thought it was true
and jumped before anyone else could. Like a bird in flight, he floated to the
ground, with no injury to skin and bones.

The Fan clan’s gang thought this was accidental, and didn’t make
much of it. In the same vein, they pointed out a wild river bend and said,
“There’s a valuable pearl down there; if you can swim, you can get it.”
Going along once again, Shang Qiukai plunged into the rapids. When he
emerged, he actually had found a pearl down there. Now the gang began to
wonder. For the first time Zihua admitted him to the ranks of those who ate

meat and wore silk.

Before long, a fire broke out in the Fan family storehouse. Zihua
declared, “Anyone who can go into the fire and get the silks out will be
rewarded according to how much he retrieves.” Shang Qiukai went in
calmly, going back and forth in and out of the fire without getting sooty or
being burned. The Fan clan gang thought he must be a master of the Tao,
so they made a collective apology: “We played tricks on you, not knowing
you were a master of the Tao; we abused you, not knowing you were a
spiritual person. You must think us fools! You must think us deaf and
blind! May we ask, what is your Way?”

Shang Qiukai said, “I have no Way. I don’t even know my own
mind. Even so, there is something to this. I'll try to tell you what it is.

“Earlier two of your men lodged at my house, and I heard them
praising the influence of the Fan clan, which could cause the thriving to
perish or the lost to survive, impoverish the rich or enrich the poor. I took
this to be true without a second thought, so I came regardless of the
distance. Then when I got here, I thought everything your gang said was
true, and my only fear was not to be able to take it seriously enough to carry
it out successfully—I didn’t know what my physical body was doing, or
where profit or harm were—I was completely single-minded. Things did
not prove otherwise, as you can see; but now that I know your gang was

fooling me, I’m suspicious within and on guard without; it’s a lucky thing,

in retrospect, I wasn’t burned or drowned. I’m feverish with shock,
shivering with fear! How could I get close to water or fire again?”

After this, whenever members of the Fan clan’s gang encountered
beggars or horse doctors on the road, they didn’t dare abuse them; they’d
always get down out of their chariots and salute them.

Zaiwo heard about this and told Confucius. Confucius said, “Didn’t
you know? When people are completely sincere, that can affect things. It
can move heaven and earth, influence ghosts and spirits, grant freedom in
all ways, with no opposition, not just walking on dangerous precipices or
plunging into water and fire. Shang Qiukai believed in falsehoods, and
even then things did not betray him—how about if other and self are both

truthful! Take note of this!”

7
Under the rule of King Xuan of the Zhou dynasty, there was a
worker in the ministry of husbandry, Liang Weng, who could tame wild
animals. When he fed them in the courtyard, even tigers, wolves, and birds
of prey were gentle and tame. They mated and reproduced, and different
species lived together without seizing or biting each other.
The king was concerned that this art would die out with him, so he

sent Mao Qiuyuan to learn it.

Liang Weng said, “I am just a minor worker—what do I have to
teach you? For fear the king might suppose I’m concealing it from you,
however, I’ Il tell you something about my method of taming tigers.

“Generally speaking, they are happy when indulged and mad when
opposed—this is the nature of creatures with animal instincts. So are their
moods capricious? It’s all a matter of whether they’re upset. Those who
feed tigers don’t dare give them live animals to eat, because of the fury of
the killing; they don’t dare give them whole carcasses to eat, because of the
fury of the rending. They time their hunger and satiety, to master their rage.

“Tigers are a different species from humans, yet they fawn on
someone who takes care of them; this is indulgence. So if they kill
someone, that means they’re upset. So how dare I upset them and make
them angry? I don’t even indulge them to please them. That’s because
when delight subsides there will be anger, and when anger subsides there is
joy—both are unbalanced.

“Now there is no thought in my mind to upset or indulge, so birds
and beasts look upon me as one of their own kind. Therefore those who
roam in my garden do not long for tall forests or wide wetlands; those who
sleep in my yard do not wish for deep mountains or recondite valleys—the

principle makes them this way.”

8

Yan Hui asked Confucius, “I once crossed deep waters and the
ferryman handled the boat like a genius. I asked him if it is possible to
learn to handle a boat. He said, ‘Yes. Someone who can swim can teach it,
while someone with skill for swimming can soon do it. Someone who can
dive, however, can handle a boat right away without ever having seen one
before.’ I asked him about that, but he didn’t answer. May I ask what it
means?”

Confucius said, “Alas, you and I have long been studying the letter
without arriving at the substance. Is this really the Way? The reason
someone who can swim can teach it is that he thinks little of the water; the
reason someone with talent for swimming can soon do it is that he forgets
the water. As for the diver who can handle a boat without ever having seen
one before, he looks upon an abyss as like dry land, regards a boat
capsizing as like a cart overturning. If everything were overturned right in
front of you and yet that couldn’t get to you, where would you not be at
ease? When you gamble for a chip, you’re clever: when you gamble for
your belt buckle, you get nervous; if you gamble for gold, you feel faint.
You may have the same skill, but when you’ve got something to lose then
you care about externals. Usually those who care about externals are inept

in regard to the inward.”

9

Confucius saw a waterfall over two hundred feet high, foaming for
ten miles. Even sea-turtles, crocodiles, fish, and turtles couldn’t swim
there. He saw a man go in swimming there, and thought it was someone in
misery who wanted to die. He sent a disciple to go downstream and fish
him out. The man emerged several hundred yards away, walking off below
the levee, singing as he went, his hair hanging loose.

Confucius caught up with the man and said, “That waterfall is over
two hundred feet high, and churns foam for ten miles. Even sea turtles,
crocodiles, fish, and turtles can’t swim there. When I saw you plunge in, I
thought you were troubled and wanted to die, so I sent a disciple to follow
downstream and fish you out. When I saw you come out with your hair
hanging down, singing as you went along, I thought you were a ghost. Now
that I’ve gotten a good look at you, I find you’re a man. May I ask, do you
have a Way to walk on water?”

He said, “No, I have no Way. I began with what was already there,
developed naturally, and succeeded by destiny. I go in with the whirlpools
and come out with the torrents. I follow the way of the water, without

imposing my self on it. This is how I go through it.”

Confucius asked, “What does it mean to begin with what’s already
there, develop naturally, and succeed by destiny?”

He said, “I was born on land and am at ease on land—that is what is
already there. I grew up in water and am comfortable in water—that is

nature. I don’t know why I am the way I am—this is the order of life.”

10

When Confucius went to Chu, he passed through a woods where he
saw a hunchback catching cicadas with a gummed stick as easily as picking
them up with his hands.

Confucius asked, “Your skill! Do you have a Way?”

He said, “I have a way. For five or six months I’d stack clay balls—
two without them falling, and I’d miss but little; when I could stack three
without them falling, I’d miss but one out of ten. When I could stack five
without them falling, then I could catch cicadas like picking them up.
When I get set, I’m like a stump, while the arm I use to catch with is like
the limb of a dead tree. However vast the universe, however manifold
myriad things, I am only aware of the cicada’s wings. I don’t fidget, I don’t
take my attention off the cicada’s wings for anything—how could I fail to

catch it?”

Confucius turned to his disciples and said, “’ When concentration is
undivided, it’s like genius.’ This saying seems to apply to the hunchback.”

The man said, “You are a scholar—how can you even ask about
this? Take care of your own business, then we can talk about something

higher.”

11

There was a man living by the sea who liked seagulls. Every
morning on the sea he’d sport with the seagulls, and they’d come by the
hundreds, without fail. His father said to him, “I’ve heard the seagulls all
play with you. Catch one and bring it here so I can enjoy it.”

The next day when he went to the sea, the gulls danced around but
didn’t land.

Therefore it is said that perfect words make no claim, perfect action

has no contrivance. What common knowledge knows is shallow.

12
Zhao Xiangzi led a party of a hundred thousand hunting in
Zhongshan, trampling the growth, burning the woods, fanning the flames

for miles. A man emerged from a rock wall and bobbed up and down with

the smoke. Everyone thought it was an apparition. Then when the fire had
passed, he ambled out as if he hadn’t been through anything at all.

Xiangzi thought this strange, and kept him for observation. His
form and features were those of a human, his breathing and his voice were
those of a human. “How did you stay inside the rock?” he asked; “How did
you go into the fire?”

That man said, “What is it you are calling ‘rock’? What is it you are
calling ‘fire’?”

Xiangzi said, “What you just came out of is rock; what you just
walked on was fire.”

The man said, “I didn’t know.”

When the Marquis Wen of Wei heard about this, he asked Zixia,
“What kind of man is that?”

Zixia said, “According to what I heard from Confucius, harmony
means universal assimilation to things; then things cannot cause injury or
obstruction, and it is possible even to go through metal and stone, and walk
on water and fire.”

Marquis Wen said, “Why don’t you do it?”

Zixia said, “I am as yet unable to clear my mind of intellection.
Even so, I have time to try to talk about it.”

Marquis Wen asked, “Why didn’t Confucius do it?”

Zixia said, “Confucius was one of those who was able to do it yet
was able to not do it.”

Marquis Wen was delighted.

13

A shaman named Ji Xian came from Qi to Cheng. He knew about
people’s death and birth, their survival and destruction, their calamity and
fortune, and whether people would live long or die young, predicting to the
year, month, and day, like a spirit.

When the people of Cheng saw this shaman, they all ran away.
Master Lie’s mind was intoxicated on seeing him; he went back and told
mister Pot Hill, “I used to think your Way supreme, but there is one even
more perfect.”

Mister Pot said, “I have only taught you the superficials; we haven’t
gotten to the substance yet. And you insist you’ve attained the Way? How
can you get eggs from a bunch of hens with no rooster? When you pit the
Way against the world, that must yield information, thereby enabling
someone to read you. Bring that shaman here, and Ill show you.

The next day Master Lie took the shaman to see the mister Pot.

When he came out, the shaman said to Master Lie, “Alas, your teacher is

dying; he will not survive. He can’t last a fortnight! I see something
strange in him; I see wet ashes in him.”

Master Lie went in to tell mister Pot, weeping profusely. The
master said, “I showed him the sign of earth, sprouting where there is no
stirring and no stopping; so he only saw me shutting off the dynamic of
vital force. Bring him again!”

The next day Master Lie brought the shaman to see mister Pot
again. When he came out, he said to Master Lie, “It’s lucky your teacher
met me—he may recover. There is life intact; I saw the shut-off power.”

Master Lie went in and told mister Pot. The master said, “That time
I showed him sky and earth, unconcerned with fame and property, potential
emerging from the heels—this is called shut-off power. Thus he only saw
my capacity for viability. Bring him again.”

The next day, Master Lie brought the shaman to see mister Pot
again. When he came out, he said to Master Lie, “Your teacher is sitting
unsteadily—I have no way to read him. Let him stabilize, and then Ill read
him.”

Master Lie went in and told mister Pot. The master said, “That time
I showed him absolute emptiness, without a trace. He only saw my faculty

of leveling energy. Try bringing him again!”

The next day Master Lie again went with the shaman to see mister
Pot. Before he even came to a standstill, the shaman lost control of himself
and ran away. Mister Pot said, “Go after him!” Master Lie chased him, but
couldn’t catch up. He went back and told Mister Pot, “He’s gone without a
trace—I couldn’t catch up with him.”

Mr. Pot said, “That time I showed him never leaving my source. I
harmonized with him by being empty; he didn’t know who or what I was,
and took me for reeds bending in the wind, waves going with the flow—
therefore he fled.”

After that Master Lie thought of himself as not yet having begun to
learn, so he went home and didn’t go out for three years, cooking for his
wife and feeding the pigs like he was feeding people, working without
partiality, returning from artifice to simplicity. Solidly independent all his
life, sealing out conflict in the midst of confusion, he was consistent in this

to the end of his days.

14
When Master Lie went to Qi, he turned around midway and came
back. Then he ran into Elder Stupid Blind Man, who said, “Why did you
come back?”

“I got scared.”

“Why were you scared?”

“I ate at ten taverns, and at five taverns they let me eat for free.”

Elder Stupid Blind Man said, “So why did you let it scare you?”

“When inner feelings are not detached, it is revealed physically,
creating an emanation that occupies other people’s minds, causing them to
disregard respect for elders, bringing on trouble. Those tavern keepers are
only selling food and drink, gaining only what’s left after many expenses.
They make but slight profit, and have little influence, and yet they treat me
like this—what about a ruler with ten thousand chariots, who toils for the
nation, his mind fully occupied with affairs? He might entrust me with
some job and pressure me to do it. That’s why I got scared.”

Elder Stupid Blind Man said, “You’re very insightful. Once you
have a place of your own, people will surround you.”

Before long Master Lie left, and outside his door was filled with the
shoes of those who came to see him. Elder Stupid Blind Man just stood
there facing north, his staff under his chin; after a while, he left without
speaking.

Visitors reported this to Master Lie. Master Lie ran barefoot, shoes
in hand. When he got to the door, he said, “Since you came, Teacher, why

didn’t you leave any remedy?”

He said, “Enough is enough. I told you that people would surround
you, and in fact they are surrounding you. But you can’t get people not to
surround you; how do you move them? Trying to induce good feelings
produces difference; if you insist on making an impression so much that it
destabilizes you yourself, then it is meaningless.

“None of those hanging around you will tell you this. Their trivial
talk is all poison to people. No one alerts, no one enlightens—why

associate together?”

15

When Yang Zhu traveled south to Pei, Lao Dan journeyed West to
Qin. Trying to intercept him in the countryside, he finally met the Old
Master in Liang.

The Old Master stopped in his tracks, looked up to the sky, and
sighed, “At first I thought you could be taught, but now you’re
unteachable.”

Master Yang did not reply. When they reached an inn, he presented
water, cloth, and comb, took off his shoes outside the door, and went before
the Old Master on his knees, saying, “Earlier you looked at the sky and
sighed, ‘At first I thought you could be taught, but now you’re

unteachable.’ I wanted to ask you to say something, but you kept on going,

and I didn’t dare. Now that you’re taking a break, may I ask what my fault
is?”

The Old Master said, “You’re arrogant and overbearing—who could
put up with you? Great purity seems ignominious, mature virtue seems
insufficient.”

Yang Zhu became uneasy and a change came over his face. “I have
respectfully heard your direction.”

Before, when Yang Zhu had left, the innkeeper had greeted him and
seen him off; the landlords had waited on him; the landladies had held his
towel and comb; the lodgers had vacated their seats for him, and those
warming themselves had made room for him at the fireplace. When he

came back, however, lodgers fought him for a seat.

16
Yang Zhu passed through Song; going east, he came to an inn. The
innkeeper had two concubines; one was beautiful and the other one ugly,
yet the ugly one was more honored than the beautiful one. Master Yang
asked why. The innkeeper replied, “The beautiful one is beautiful on her
own account; I am not cognizant of her beauty. The ugly one is ugly on her

own account; I am not cognizant of her ugliness.”

Master Yang said to his disciples, “Make a note of this! When
conduct is noble while eliminating self-important behavior, where would

one not be loved?”

17

There is a way of always winning in the world, and a way of not
always winning. The way of always winning is called gentility, the way of
not always winning is called force. Both are easy to know, yet no one
knows them. Hence the ancient saying that force outdoes inferiors while
gentility outdoes superiors.

If you outdo inferiors, when you meet equals you’re in danger. If
you outdo superiors, there’s no danger. To master yourself this way, to take
responsibility for the world this way, is called spontaneous victory without
conquest, inherent responsibility without appointment.

Master Yu said, “If you would be forceful, you must protect it by
yielding. Develop flexibility and you will be firm; cultivate yielding and
you will be strong. By observing what is developed, the trends of trouble
and fortune can be known. Force overcomes its inferior—meeting an equal,
it’s destroyed. Gentility overcomes superiors—its power cannot be

measured.”

Lao Dan said, “When an army is forceful it perishes; when wood is
inflexible, it breaks. Gentility and yielding are cohorts of life, inflexibility

and force are cohorts of death.”

18

Appearances don’t necessarily have to be the same for intelligence
to be the same; intelligence is not necessarily the same when appearances
are the same. Sages take sameness of intelligence and leave sameness of
appearance; ordinary people take to sameness in appearance and avoid
sameness in intelligence—they take to and admire those who are like
themselves in appearance, while avoiding those who differ from themselves
in appearance.

What has a tall body, with difference in functions of hands and feet,
has hair and teeth, and walks upright, is called a human; but a human is not
necessarily without an animal mind. Though one may have an animal
mind, one seems akin on account of appearances.

What has wings or horns, fangs or talons, flies or runs on all fours,
is called a bird or a beast; but a bird or a beast is not necessarily void of a
human mind. Though one may have a human mind, it seems alien on

account of appearances.

Fu Xi, Nu Wa, Shen Nong, and Yu had serpentine bodies and human
faces, ox necks and tiger noses; they had nonhuman appearances, but they
had the virtues of great sages. Jie of Xia, Zhou of Yin, Huan of Lu, and Mu
of Chu were all human-like in appearance and faculties, but they had bestial
hearts.

So if people stick to one form to seek supreme intelligence, they
cannot get near it.

When the Yellow Emperor fought the Red Emperor in the fields of
Hill Spring, he led bears, wolves, leopards, cougars, and tigers as the
vanguard, with eagles, fighting pheasants, hawks, and kites for signals.

This is an example of commanding birds and beasts by power.

When Yao made Kui his music director, at the tinkling of stone
chimes the animals danced together, at a tune from the pipes phoenixes
came ceremoniously. This is an example of attracting birds and beasts by
sound.

So how do the minds of birds and beasts differ from humans? Their
forms and sounds are different from humans, so people don’t know the way
to communicate with them. Sages know all beings and comprehend all
beings, so they are able to attract and command them.

In the intelligence of birds and beasts there is that which is naturally

the same as humans; in their equal desire to sustain life they don’t need to

depend on knowledge from humans. Male and female mate, mother and
child are close, they avoid flatlands and take to fastnesses, they shun cold
and take to warmth, they gather in groups and walk in lines. With the
young on the inside and the mature on the outside, they lead each other to
drink, and call the group to eat.

In high antiquity, the birds and beasts lived together with people,
walked side by side with humans; in the time of the emperors and kings,
they began to take fright and run away. Coming to latter days, they hide
and flee to avoid harm.

At present, in the country of the Jie people of the East, the people of
that country can often understand the speech of domestic animals; this is an
attainment of partial knowledge. The spiritual sages of high antiquity knew
the mental conditions of all beings, and understood the utterances of
different species. They assembled them, trained them, and took them in,
just like the human population. So first they assembled ghosts, spirits, and
supernatural beings, then they reached the human population of the eight
directions, finally they gathered birds, beasts, and bugs.

This means that species of living creatures are not too different in
terms of intelligence. The spiritual sages knew this, and that is why none

were left out from their instruction and training.

19

In the state of Song there was a monkey trainer who liked monkeys
and raised a troop of them. He was able to understand the monkeys’
thoughts, and the monkeys also understood his mind. He reduced his own
family’s food to satisfy the monkeys’ wishes, but soon ran short and had to
limit their food. Fearing the monkeys might not agree with him, he first
lied to them, saying, “T ll give you chestnuts—three in the morning and four
in the evening. Will that be enough?” The monkeys all rose up in fury.
Then he said, “How about if I give you four chestnuts in the morning and
three in the evening?” The monkeys all quieted down, pleased.

When people entrap each other through the differences in their
abilities, it’s always like this. Sages use intelligence to encompass ignorant
people the way the monkey trainer used his wits to trap the monkeys. The
terms and realities may be equivalent, yet they cause them to be glad or

mad!

20
Master Ji Sheng raised a fighting cock for King Xuan of the Zhou
dynasty. After a period of ten days, the king asked, “Can it fight yet?”
He said, “Not yet. Now it’s just strutting around proudly.”

Ten days later the king asked again.

He said, “Not yet. It still responds to shadows and echoes.”

Ten days later the king asked again.

He said, “Not yet. It’s still glaring and mettlesome.”

Ten days later the king asked again.

He said, “Almost. It no longer shows any change when another
cock cries. It faces others like a wooden rooster; its powers are complete.

No other cocks could face up to it—they would just run the other way.”

21

Hui Ang met King Kang of Song. King Kang stamped his foot,
harrumphed, and said, “What I like is boldness and strength; I don’t like
those who act benevolent and dutiful. What have you got to teach me?”

Hui Ang said, “I have a way to make people unable to stab you even
if they’re bold, unable to strike you even if they’re strong. Yet even if they
don’t dare, that doesn’t mean they don’t want to; I have a way beyond this
to make people have no such intent to begin with.

“But even if they have no such intent, that doesn’t mean they’re
caring. I have a way beyond this, to cause all the men and women on earth
to gladly and willingly care for someone. In terms of sagacity, this is four
levels above courage and strength—have you no interest at all, Majesty?”

The king of Song said, “This is something I’d like to learn.”

Hui Ang said, “Confucius and Mo Di—that’s all. Confucius and
Mo Di had no territory, yet they were leaders; they had no offices, yet they
were chiefs. Everyone in the world, men and women, wanted to contribute
to their safety and welfare. Now you, Majesty, are ruler of a country of ten
thousand chariots—if you really had the will, everyone in the realm would
benefit in their way. That would be far more sagacious than Confucius or
Mo Di.”

The king of Song had no response. Hui Ang hurried out. The king
said to those by him, “How eloquent, the way that visitor overcame me with

his speech!”

Ill. King Mu of Zhou

1

In the time of King Mu of Zhou (r. 1001-946 BCE), a magician
came from a country of the Far West. He could go into water and fire,
penetrate metal and stone, overturn mountains and rivers, move cities and
towns. He could travel through the sky without falling, he was not
obstructed by contact with solid objects. His manifold transformations and
apparitions were inexhaustible. Not only could he alter the appearance of
objects, he could also change people’s thoughts.

King Mu of Zhou revered this magician like a god, and waited on
him like a lord. He let him live in a royal palace, presented him with
sacrifices of cattle, sheep, and swine, and selected choice singing and
dancing women to entertain him.

The magician considered the king’s palace too shabby to live in, his
food too foul to eat, and the king’s courtesans too smelly and ugly to
approach.

So the king remodeled for him. No pains were spared in the
construction and embellishment; the treasury was exhausted by the time the
tower was complete. Seven thousand feet high, it looked over the

Zhongnan Mountain Range, and was called Tower in the Sky.

Then the king selected beautiful virgins with soft skin, had makeup
put on them, straightened their eyebrows, outfitted them with hairpins and
earrings, and dressed them in gauze draped with silk. With faces powdered
and eyebrows penciled, sashes hung with jade rings, fragrant herbs filling
the place, they played classical music for his pleasure.

Every month the magician was presented with rich robes, and every
day he was provided with delicacies. He was still not comfortable, but he
forced himself to put up with it. He had not been staying there long when
he asked the king to go on a trip together.

The king took hold of the magician’s sleeves, and they flew up into
the sky. After a while they came to the magician’s mansion.

The magician’s mansion was made of gold and silver pointed with
pearl and jade; it rose above the clouds and rain, but it was not clear what
its foundation was set on—it looked like a mass of clouds.

Every sight and sound there, every aroma and flavor, was not of the
human world. The king really thought it was some sort of celestial realm.
When the king looked down at his own palace, it seemed like a pile of dirt
or a Stack of hay.

It seemed to the king that he had stayed there for several decades,
without thinking of his own country, when the magician again asked the

king to go on a trip together. Where they went, sun and moon could not be

seen above, rivers and seas could not be seen below. The radiance of light
dazzled the king’s eyes so he could not see, ambient sound befuddled the
king’s ears so he could not hear. Confused and dispirited, he begged the
magician to take him back.

The magician pushed him, and he seemed to fall into a void.

When he woke up, the king was still sitting where he had been
before, in the same company as before. When he looked in front of him, his
wine had not yet settled, the hors d’oeuvres were still fresh.

The king asked where he’d been. Courtiers said, “Your majesty was
thinking silently, that’s all.”

King Mu was beside himself for three months after that. When he
recovered, he questioned the magician. The magician told him, “We
journeyed spiritually, not physically. Is that dwelling any different from
your Majesty’s palace? Are the places we traveled any different from your
Majesty’s gardens? You’re used to what’s always there, and you wonder at
what soon disappears. Can the limits of transformation, and the speed of
time’s passing, be grasped in full?”

The king was delighted. With no concern for affairs of state, and no
interest in his ministers or consorts, he indulged in thoughts of distant

journeys. He had two chariots outfitted with teams of four chargers, with a

driver and assistant. The king rode in one of them as they galloped a
thousand miles, coming to the land of the Big Hunting Party tribes.

The Big Hunting Party tribals presented blood from white cranes for
the king to drink, and provided milk from cows and mares to wash his feet.
They also provided for the other riders as well.

After drinking, they went on, eventually spending the night at the
foot of the Kunlun mountains, north of the Red River. The next day he
climbed a Kunlun peak, from where he sighted the palace of the Yellow
Emperor. He marked it for future generations with a pile of earth.

Subsequently he visited the Matriarch of the West, and quaffed wine
on the Jade Pond. The Matriarch of the West sang for the king, and the king
sang back, with melancholy lyrics. Then he gazed into the West where the
sun sets. In one day he’d traveled thousands of miles. The king then
lamented, “Alas, I am not full of virtue, but addicted to pleasure—later
generations will probably count up my errors!”

King Mu was hardly a spiritual man. He got all the pleasure he
could in life, but he still died when his time was up—and the world thought

he’d gone to heaven.

Laochengzi studied magic from master Yin Wen, who told him
nothing for three years. Laochengzi asked what his fault was, and
requested permission to withdraw.

Master Yin Wen saluted him and showed him inside. Dismissing
everyone else, he said to him, “When Lao Dan went West long ago, he
looked back and told me, ‘Whatever has created energy and specific form is
illusory. What Creation initiates and what yin and yang transmute 1s said to
be born and said to die. What is altered in terms of form by finding out
processes and understanding change is said to be a transformation and said
to be illusory.

“The agency of Creation is subtle in its skill, profound in its effect,
certainly hard to fathom, hard to comprehend. Working on form is obvious
in its skill, shallow in its effect, so it readily appears and disappears. When
you know that illusion and transformation are no different from birth and
death, then you may learn magic. I and you are both illustons—why do you
need to learn?”

Laochengzi went home and contemplated master Yin Wen’s words
deeply for three months. Eventually he could be present or absent at will,
and cause the four seasons to interchange, producing thunder in winter and
ice in summer, making birds run and beasts fly. For the rest of his life he

never revealed his art, so no one in the world passed it on.

Master Lie said, “Those who are skilled in effecting transformation
use their science secretly; their apparent merit is the same as others. The
virtues of the Five Emperors and achievements of the Three Kings were not
necessarily due to the power of intelligence and courage—some were

magically accomplished. Who can fathom this?”

3

Consciousness has eight manifestations, dreaming has six
symptoms. What are the eight manifestations of consciousness? Purpose,
action, gain, loss, sadness, happiness, birth, and death. These are
experienced by the physical body. What are the six symptoms of
dreaming? Normal dreaming, dreaming due to fright, dreaming due to
thinking, waking dreaming, joyful dreaming, fearful dreaming. These come
from psychic interaction.

When things occur through unconscious sense and change, one is
confused about their source when they happen. When things occur through
conscious sense and change, one knows their source when they happen.
When one knows their source, one has no fear.

The cyclic fluctuations of the body are all related to heaven and
earth and correspond to types of things. So when yin energy is strong one

dreams of crossing large bodies of water and becoming afraid; when yang

energy is strong, one dreams of going through fire and burning. When yin
and yang are both strong, one dreams of life and death. When very full, one
dreams of giving; when very hungry, one dreams of getting. So those
whose affliction is flighty insubstantiality dream of floating, while those
whose affliction is depressive gravity dream of sinking. When you sleep
with a belt on, you dream of snakes. Ifa bird in flight pecks at your hair,
you dream of flying. On the verge of a chill you dream of fire; on the verge
of sickness you dream of food. One who drinks wine will be sad, one who
sings and dances will lament.

Master Lie said, “Psychic encounters make dreams, physical
interactions create phenomena. Therefore thoughts during the day and
dreams during the night are encounters of mind and body. Therefore
thoughts and dreams naturally disappear in one whose mind is stable. True
awareness is not spoken, true dreams are not interpreted; they are processes
of assimilation of things. ‘The real people of antiquity spontaneously forgot
their awareness and didn’t dream when they slept’—is this at all

nonsensical?”

4
In the southern corner of the extreme West there is a country of

unknown borders call the Pristine Wasteland, where yin and yang energies

do not mix and so cold and heat are not differentiated, where sun and moon
do not shine and so day and night are not differentiated. The people thus do
not eat or wear clothes, but mostly sleep. Waking up once every fifty days,
they think what they do in dreams is real and what they see while awake is
illusory.

In the middle of the four seas is called the Central Country; it
straddles the Yellow River south to north, and crosses Mt. Tai east to west,
extending thousands of miles. There yin and yang are precisely regular, so
cold and heat alternate; dark and light are clearly divided, so day and night
alternate. Some of the people there are intelligent, some are foolish. All
creatures reproduce abundantly, and people have many talents and skills.
There are rulers and ministers over them, with rites and laws governing
them. Their utterances and actions are countless. Alternatively waking and
sleeping, they consider their doings while awake to be real and their
perceptions while dreaming to be illusion.

In the northern corner of the extreme East there’s a land called
Country of Crumbling Mounds. There the weather is always hot, and the
soil doesn’t produce good crops on account of excessive sun and moon
light. The people there eat roots and nuts, and don’t know how to cook

food. They are hard-hearted and violent, and the strong oppress the weak;

they value conquest without caring for justice. They mostly run and seldom

rest; they are always awake and don’t sleep.

5

Mr. Yin of Zhou was a big businessman; his workers had no rest
from dawn to dusk. Among them was an old laborer whose physical
strength was exhausted, yet he was worked harder and harder. By day he
did his tasks groaning and grunting, while at night he slept soundly,
completely worn out. As his consciousness dissolved, every night he’d
dream he was ruler of a nation, reigning over the people, in charge of the
affairs of the nation. Partying in palaces, indulging in his heart’s desires, he
was incomparably happy. When he woke up, he’d return to his job.

When someone tried to console him for his hard work, the laborer
said, “A human lifetime is half day and half night. In the daytime I’m a
laborer, which is indeed miserable; but at night I’m a king, with pleasures
beyond compare. Why should I complain?”

As for Mr. Yin, he managed his worldly affairs conscientiously and
ran his family business thoughtfully; mind and body both tired, at night he
too slept with exhaustion. Every night he dreamed he was a servant,

running all sorts of errands and doing all sorts of chores, repeatedly hollered

at and beaten with a stick. In his sleep he muttered, groaned, and grunted
all night long.

Troubled by this, Mr. Yin consulted a friend. His friend said, “Your
status amply affords you prosperity; you have plenty of property and assets,
far more than most people. At night, when you dream, you’re a servant.
This is the predictable norm of alternation of hardship and ease. If you
want to have it your way both waking and dreaming, how could you attain
that?”

Mr. Yin listened to his friend’s advice, relaxing his workers’

schedule and reducing his own concerns; then his illness abated a bit.

6

A man of Zheng was gathering firewood in the fields when he
spooked a deer; overtaking it, he struck it down and killed it. Fearing
someone might see it, for the time being he hid it in a dry ditch and covered
it with brush. He was unable to contain his joy.

Later, however, he couldn’t locate the place where he’d hidden the
deer. So in the end he thought he’d dreamed it. As he went along the road,
he kept muttering about it; someone overheard him, and managed to find

the deer.

When this man got home, he told his wife, “Earlier a woodcutter
dreamed he’d caught a deer but didn’t know where it was; now I’ve found
it, so that must have been a true dream!”

His wife said, “Could it be that you dreamed you saw a woodcutter
catching the deer? Was there even a woodcutter? Now you’ve actually
found a deer—does this mean your dream was true?”

Her husband said, “If that’s how I found the deer, what does it
matter if it was the dream of another or my own dream?”

After the woodcutter returned home, he was uneasy about having
lost the deer. That night he actually dreamed of the place he had hidden it,
and also dreamed of the man who had discovered it. Come morning, he
went looking based on his dream, and found it. Subsequently he laid claim
to the deer, filing suit with the magistrate.

The magistrate said, “When you first bagged the deer, you
mistakenly thought it a dream. Then when you located the deer through a
true dream, you mistakenly thought it real. He took your deer in actuality,
and you dispute with him over the deer. His wife also thinks he dreamed he
found someone else’s deer. No one owns the deer, but now that there is this
deer here, please divide it in two.”

This came to the attention of the ruler of Zheng. He said, “Ha! Isn’t

the magistrate dividing someone’s deer in a dream?” He consulted the

prime minister about it. The prime minister said, “I can’t tell whether he’s
dreaming or not. To distinguish waking from dreaming takes a Yellow
Emperor or a Confucius. Now that there are no more Yellow Emperor or
Confucius, who is to distinguish them? But it will do to follow the dictate

of the magistrate.”

7

Huazi of Yangli in Song suffered from forgetfulness in middle age.
What he’d take in the morning he’d forget at night, what he’d give at night
he’d forget in the morning. On the street he’d forget to walk, in his house
he’d forget to sit. At any given moment he was not conscious of what went
before, and later he’d be unconscious of what was going on presently.

His whole family was troubled by this. They consulted a diviner to
diagnose it, without results. They consulted a shaman for prayer over it, but
that didn’t stop it. They consulted a physician to treat it, but that didn’t
relieve it.

There was a Confucian of Lu who introduced himself as able to cure
this. Huazi’s wife and children offered him half their estate for the
prescription. The Confucian said, “This cannot be figured out by
divination, cannot be exorcised by prayer, cannot be relieved by medicine.

I will try to alter his mind, change his thinking, so that he may recover.”

Now the Confucius tested Huazi by exposing him to the elements,
and found he asked for clothing. He starved him, and he asked for food.

He shut him in the dark, and he asked for light. The Confucian joyfully told
the son, “His ailment can be eliminated, but my prescription is a secret
passed down through the generations without being revealed to outsiders.
Send everyone away, and leave me alone with him in the house for seven
days.”

They followed directions, and nobody knew what the Confucian did,
but Huazi’s chronic ailment cleared up in a day.

Once Huazi woke up, he became furious. Ejecting his wife and
punishing his son, he went after the Confucian with a spear. Restraining
him, the local people asked him why he was acting that way.

Huazi said, “Before, when I was forgetful, I was serenely unaware
of whether heaven and earth existed or not. Now that I am suddenly
conscious of the past, I’m upset by the survival and passing, the gain and
loss, the sorrow and joy, the liking and disliking, of several decades past;
I’m afraid that future survival and passing, gain and loss, sorrow and joy,
liking and disliking, will disturb my mind like this—can I even have a
moment of forgetfulness?

Zigeng heard of this and wondered; he told Confucius about it.

Confucius said, “This is not within your reach!” Then he turned to Yan Hui

and told him to record this.

8

Mr. Pang of Qin had a son who was intelligent in youth but suffered
from confusion and disorientation when he grew up. He heard songs as
dirges, saw white as black, smelt fragrance as putrid, tasted sweets as bitter,
did wrong thinking it right. In his mind, everything was reversed—sky and
earth, the four directions, water and fire, cold and heat.

Mr. Yang said to the father, “The gentlemen of Lu have many skills
—perhaps they can cure him. Why don’t you go there and find out?”

The father went to Lu, but as he was passing through Chen he met
Lao Dan, and told him about his son’s symptoms.

Lao Dan said, “How do you know your son is confused? Nowadays
everyone in the world is confused about right and wrong, blind about what
is beneficial and what is harmful. There are so many with the same
affliction that no one realizes it.

“However, confusion in one person is not enough to ruin the whole
family. Confusion in one family is not enough to destroy a whole
community. Confusion in one community is not enough to destroy a whole
country. Confusion in one country is not enough to destroy the whole

world. But if the whole world is confused, who is destroying it?

“If everyone in the world had a mind like your son, then you would
be the one who’s confused. Who can correct sorrow and happiness, sound
and form, scent and flavor, right and wrong?

“Furthermore, these words of mine are not necessarily not confused;
how much more so the gentlemen of Lu, who are the most confused of all—
how could they resolve others’ confusion? You’d best pack your bag and

m?

go straight home

9

A man of Yan was born in Yan but grew up in Chu. Then when he
got old, he returned to his native country.

As they were passing through Jin, fellow travelers teased him.
Pointing to a walled city, they said, “This is the citadel of the nation of
Yan.” The man blanched, visibly moved. Then they pointed to a shrine and
said, “This is your village shrine.” The old man sighed. Then they pointed
to a house and said, “This was your ancestors’ abode.” Now he wept
profusely. They pointed out a mausoleum and said, “There are your
ancestors’ tombs.” The man wailed uncontrollably.

His fellow travelers laughed and said, “We were fooling you—this

is still only the country of Jin.”

The man was very embarrassed. Then when he finally reached Yan
and really beheld the citadel and shrine of Yan, and actually saw his

ancestors’ home and tombs, he wasn’t so sad.

IV. Confucius
1

When Confucius was living in retirement, Zigeng went to wait on
him, and found him looking sad. Zigeng didn’t dare question him; he went
out and told Yan Hui. Yan Hui picked a harp and sang; Confucius heard it
and called him in, asking, “Why are you so happy?

Yan Hui said, “Why are you so sad?”

Confucius said, “First tell me what you mean.”

Yan Hui said, “In the past I heard you say that if one is content with
Creation and acknowledges destiny, one will thus not be sad. That is why
Pm happy.”

Confucius remained silent for a while, looking offended. Then he
said, “Did I say that? Your conception is mistaken. This is something I
said in the past, that’s all. Please consider what I say now to be correct.

“You only know the carefree condition of accepting Creation and
acknowledging destiny; you don’t know the magnitude of the grief of
accepting Creation and acknowledging destiny. Now I will inform you of

the reality of it.

“Cultivating your individual self, not caring whether you’re
struggling or successful, knowing that things that come and go are not your
self, unconcerned by change and chaos—this is what you call the freedom
from sorrow that comes from accepting Creation and acknowledging
destiny. In the past I edited the classics of poetry and history and reformed
rituals and music, to govern the land and bequeath to coming generations. I
didn’t just cultivate myself as an individual, I brought order to the state of
Lu. But the rulers and ministers of Lu are losing their proper relationship
day by day; humanity and justice are declining while feeling and character
are weakening. If the Way is not practiced in one state as it was in past
years, what will become of the world in the future? That’s how I came to
realize that poetry and history, ritual and music, are no help in bringing
order to chaos; yet I don’t know how to change them. This is what those
who accept Creation and acknowledge destiny lament.

“Even so, I have realized this. Acceptance and acknowledgment are
not what the ancients called acceptance and acknowledgment. Accepting
nothing and acknowledging nothing are true acceptance and true
acknowledgment; thus there is nothing one cannot accept, nothing one
cannot acknowledge, nothing one is not concerned about, nothing one will
not do. Why abandon poetry and history, ritual and music? Why change

them?”

Yan Hui paid respects to Confucius and said, “I get it too.” Then he
went out and told Zigeng.

Zigeng was stunned. He went home and thought intensely for seven
days, neither sleeping nor eating, to the point where his bones stood out.
Yan Hui went again to explain it to him, and then he returned to Confucius’
school, where he played music, sang poetry, and read books for the rest of

his life.

2

When grandee Chen made an ambassadorial visit to Lu, he met
privately with Mr. Shusun. Mr. Shusun said, “There is a sage in our state.”

Chen said, “Isn’t it Confucius?”

Shusun said, “Yes.”

Chen asked, “How do you know he’s a sage?”

Mr. Shusun said, “I’ve often heard Yan Hui say that Confucius can
use his body without his mind.”

Grandee Chen said, “There’s a sage in my state too. Don’t you
know?”

Shusun asked, “What sage are you referring to?”

Chen replied, “There is a disciple of Lao Dan called the Master of
the Hidden Storehouse. Having attained Dan’s Way, he can see with his
ears and hear with his eyes.”

When the Lord of Lu heard of this, he was amazed; he had a top
noble invite that master with all courtesy. The Master of the Hidden
Storehouse came in response to the invitation. The Lord of Lu humbly
asked about this ability.

The Master of the Hidden Storehouse said, “This has been reported
mistakenly. I am able to see and hear without using my eyes and ears; I
can’t interchange the function of eye and ear.”

The Lord of Lu said, “This is even more extraordinary; how is it
done? Pray tell me.”

The Master of the Hidden Storehouse said, “My body merges with
mind, mind merges with energy, energy merges with spirit, spirit merges
with nothingness. Whatever comes to me, the slightest existent, the faintest
sound, be it far beyond the eight infinities, or as close as between eyebrow
and eyelash, I invariably cognize it. But I don’t know if this is the
awareness of my seven apertures and four limbs, or the cognition of my
heart, gut, and internal organs; it’s just spontaneous knowing, that’s all.”

The Lord of Lu was delighted. Another day he told Confucius.

Confucius smiled and did not reply.

3

The prime minister of Shang met Confucius and asked, “Are you a
sage?”

Confucius said, “I don’t dare presume to be a sage, but I’m learned
and knowledgeable.”

The prime minister of Shang asked, “Were the Three Kings sages?”

Confucius replied, “The Three Kings skillfully appointed the wise
and the courageous, but I don’t know if they were sages.”

The prime minister asked, “Were the Five Emperors sages?”

Confucius replied, “The Five Emperors skillfully appointed the
benevolent and the just, but I don’t know if they were sages.”

The prime minister asked, “Where the Three August Ones sages?”

Confucius replied, “The Three August Ones skillfully appointed
those in accord with the times, but I don’t know if they were sages.”

The prime minister of Shang was shocked. “Then whom do you
consider a sage?”

Confucius made a face, and then after a while said, “There is a sage
among the people of the West. He does not govern, yet there is no disorder;
he is spontaneously trusted without saying anything, he is naturally

effective without exerting influence. He is so great that the people cannot

label him. I suspect he is a sage, but I don’t know if he’s really a sage or
not.”
The prime minister of Shang remained silent, thinking to himself,

“Confucius is fooling me!”

4

Zixia asked Confucius, “What is Yan Hui’s character like?”

Confucius said, “Hui’s humaneness is greater than mine.”

“How about Zigeng’s character?”

Confucius said, “His eloquence is greater than mine.”

“How about Zilu’s character?”

Confucius said, “His bravery is greater than mine.”

“How about Zishang’s character?”

Confucius said, “His dignity is greater than mine.”

Zixia got off his seat and asked, “Then why do these four attend
you, master?”

Confucius said, “Sit down, and Pll tell you. Yan Hui is capable of
being humane, but not capable of change. Zigeng is capable of being
eloquent but not capable of keeping silent. Zilu is capable of bravery but

not capable of reticence. Zizhang is capable of being dignified, but not

capable of conforming. If one who had what all four have were to slight

me, I wouldn’t accept it. That is why they attend me devotedly.”

5

Having been apprenticed to Lin the Master of Pot Hill, and
associated with the Old Ignorant Blind Man, Master Lie took up residence
in the south suburbs. Those who settled there to follow him were so
numerous day by day they could not be counted. Even so, Master Lie still
thought little of it; he debated with them every day, listening to all of them.
Thus he never visited the Master of the South Suburbs, even though they
were next-door neighbors for twenty years. One day they crossed paths on
the road, and seemed not to regard each other. Their followers thought
there must be bad blood between Master Lie and the Master of the South
Suburbs.

Someone from Chu asked Master Lie, “What have you and the
Master of the South Suburbs got against each other?”

Master Lie said, “The Master of the South Suburbs is full in
appearance but empty at heart; his ears hear nothing, his eyes see nothing,
his mouth says nothing, his mind knows nothing, his body is unchanging.
What’s the point of visiting each other? Even so, as an experiment I'll go

with you.”

He selected forty of his disciples to go along. When they saw the
Master of South Suburbs, they found him like a statue, and couldn’t
communicate with him. Then they looked at Master Lie: his body and
spirit were not together, and it was impossible to socialize with him.

Suddenly the Master of the South Suburbs pointed to someone in the
last row of Master Lie’s disciples and spoke to him forcefully, like someone
intent on winning an argument.

Master Lie’s disciples were surprised at this. When they got home,
they all had looks of doubt on their faces.

Master Lie said, “Those who get the idea have nothing to say, and
neither do those who know everything. Speaking by saying nothing is still
speech; taking knowing nothing to be knowledge is still knowing. Saying
nothing and not speaking, knowing nothing and not knowing—these are
still speech, still knowledge. And there is nothing unsaid, nothing
unknown, yet nothing said, nothing known. That’s simply the way it is—

why are you randomly surprised?”

6
When Master Lie was an apprentice, after three years he no longer
presumed to think of right and wrong, did not dare to speak of gain and

loss; only then did Old Shang take a look at him. After five years he again

thought of right and wrong and spoke of gain and loss; only then did Old
Shang smile. After seven years, there was no right or wrong in whatever he
thought, no gain or loss in whatever he said. Then the master let him sit
next to him for the first time. After nine years, he gave free rein to thought
and speech without being conscious of his own right or wrong or gain or
loss, or others’ right or wrong or gain or loss. Inside and outside were
ended. After that his eyes were like ears, his ears like his nose, his nose like
his mouth, all the same. His mind was still, his body relaxed, his bones and
muscles merged. He was not aware of what his body rested on, what his
feet walked on, what his mind thought of, what his words contained.

This is how he was, that’s all; so logically he had nothing to hide.

7

At first Master Lie liked traveling, but the Master of Pot Hill asked
him, “You like traveling. What do you like about traveling?”

Lie said, “The pleasure of traveling is that the scenery never gets
familiar. Other people travel to see the sights; I travel to see the changes.
There’s no one who can distinguish travel of one kind from another.”

The Master of Pot Hill said, “Your traveling is certainly the same as
others, yet you insist it’s different? Whatever the sights, their changes are

always seen. You enjoy the inconsistency of things without being aware of

your own inconsistency; you travel outward without knowing how to gaze
inward. Those who travel outward seek completeness in things; those who
gaze inward find sufficiency in themselves. Finding sufficiency in oneself
is the goal of travel; seeking completeness in things is travel without
success.”

Master Lie never went out again for the rest of his life, thinking he
didn’t know how to travel.

The Master of Pot Hill said, “Isn’t this the goal of travel? Supreme
travel doesn’t know where it goes; supreme gazing does not know what it
observes. Everything is travel, everything is observation—this is what I
call travel, this is what I call gazing. That is why I suggest this is the goal

of travel.”

8
Long Shu said to [the physician] Wen Zhi, “Your art is subtle. I
have an illness; can you cure it?”
Wen Zhi said, “I’m at your service. But first tell me your
symptoms.”
Long Shu said, “I do not consider it glorious to be praised by
everyone in my hometown, and I do not consider it a disgrace to be vilified

by everyone in the state. I do not delight in gain or sorrow over loss. I look

upon life as I do death, I look upon wealth as I do poverty. I look upon
humans as I do swine, I look upon myself as I do others. When I am at
home, it is like being at an inn on a journey; I look upon my hometown like
a foreign country. With all these ailments, rank and reward cannot
encourage me, punishments and penalties cannot intimidate me. Prosperity
and decline, gain and loss, cannot change me; sorrow and joy cannot move
me. So of course I can’t work for the government, socialize with relatives
and friends, control my wife and children, or govern my servants and
slaves. What disease is this? What prescription can relieve it?”

Wen Zhi had Long Shu stand with his back to the light. Wen Zhi
focused on the light from behind and observed him. Having done this, he
said, “Aha! I see your heart! Your heart is empty—you are almost a sage!
Six of the openings in your heart are free-flowing, but one opening is not
functional. Could this be why you currently consider sagehood a sickness?

This cannot be eliminated by my low-level art.”

9
What is always alive without coming from anywhere is the Way;
what is alive due to life and therefore doesn’t perish in spite of ending is

Eternity.

To perish because of living is unfortunate; to die normally for a
reason is also the Way. To die because of death, therefore perishing
spontaneously though not finished, is also normal.

To come to life on account of death is fortunate. Therefore living
without servile compulsion is called the Way, while attaining an end by
means of the Way is called eternity. To die for a practical purpose is also
referred to as the Way; to die by the Way is also called eternity.

When Ji Liang died, Yang Zhu sang in front of his house. When Sui
Wu died, Yang Zhu patted the corpse and cried. When common people are

born and common people die, the commoners sing, the commoners cry.

10
One who’s about to go blind can see a strand of hair before; one
who’s about to go deaf can hear a gnat flying before. One who’s about to
lose the sense of taste can distinguish water from different rivers before;
one who’s about to lose the sense of smell can detect scorching and decay
before. One who is getting stiff is agile and limber before; one who is
getting confused discerns right and wrong before. Thus it is that things do

not revert until they’ve reached their peak.

11

There were many wise people in the wilds of Zheng, many
intellectuals in East Village. Among the followers in the wilds was a
certain Uncle Rich Man; passing through East Village on a journey, he met
the legalist and logician Deng Xi.

Deng Xi turned around and looked at his disciples; smiling, he said,
“T’Il tease this visitor for you—how would you like that?”

His disciples said, ““That’s something we’d like to witness.”

Deng Xi said to Uncle Rich Man, “Do you now the meaning of
feeding off and feeding? Those who feed off others and can’t feed
themselves are comparable to dogs and pigs. To raise animals or feed
people so that the animals or the people work for you is human power. To
enable your followers to eat their fill, dress well, and have leisure to rest is
an accomplishment of government. If old and young gather in crowds only
to be penned in cages to be slaughtered for the kitchens, how are they
different from dogs and pigs?”

Uncle Rich Man didn’t answer. A follower of Uncle Rich Man
came forward out of turn and said, “Haven’t you heard of the many skills of
the states of Ji and Lu, sir? There are those skilled in construction and
carpentry, those skilled in metallurgy and leatherworking, those skilled in

song and music, those skilled in literature and mathematics, those skilled in

military operations, those skilled in religion—a plurality of abilities is
available. And yet there is no leadership, no one able to put them to work.
Instead, the leaders are ignorant, the employers are incompetent, and yet
those who know this and are capable still work for them. Rulers are my
errand-boys—what are you so proud of?”

Deng Xi had no reply. With a look at his followers, he retreated.

12

Gongyi Bai was famed among the lords for strength. The Duke of
Tangxi spoke of this to King Xuan of Zhou, and the king sent him an
official invitation to court.

When Gongyi Bai arrived, they looked at his physique and saw it
was that of a weakling. Perplexed, King Xuan asked, “How strong are
you?”

Gongyi Bai said, “I’m strong enough to break a grasshopper’s leg
and lift a cicada’s wing.”

The king flushed and said, “I’m strong enough to rip apart
rhinoceros hide and drag nine bulls by the tail, yet still reproach myself for
weakness. Why are you famous all over the land for strength when you can

only break grasshopper legs and lift cicada wings?”

Gongyi Bai sighed and shrank back from his seat, saying, “Good
question, Majesty! I will be so presumptuous as to tell the truth.

“I had a certain master Shang Qiu as my teacher; his strength was
unmatched in all the land, yet unknown even to his family and relatives,
because he never used his strength.

“I worked for him faithfully, and he finally told me, ‘If people want
to see the unseen, let them look at what others don’t observe; if they want to
attain the unattainable, let them practice what others do not do.

“So those who would learn to see first look at cartloads of kindling;
those who would learn to hear first listen to giant bells. For those who have
ease within, there is nothing difficult outside; because there is nothing
difficult for them outside, their repute doesn’t get out of their houses.’

“Now my repute among the lords is because I’ve disobeyed my
teacher’s instruction and revealed my ability. Nevertheless, my reputation
isn’t due to my pride in my strength, but my ability to use my strength.

Isn’t that better than those who take pride in their strength?”

13
Prince Mou of Zhongshan was a sagacious duke of the state of Wei.
He liked to associate with intellectuals, not worrying about affairs of state.

He enjoyed the company of the logician Gongsun Long. The disciples of

the conventionalist Yuezheng Ziyu laughed at this, and Prince Mou asked
him, “Why do you laugh at my fondness for the company of Gongsun
Long?”

Ziyu said, “It’s Gongsun Long’s character—his conduct has no
guidance, his learning has no associates. He is glib but misses the point; he
is uncommitted and unaffiliated; he has a penchant for oddities and tells tall
tales. He wants to confuse people and silence them; he exercises this with
the likes of Han Tan.”

Prince Mou’s expression changed; he said, “How do you
characterize Gongsun Long’s faults? I’d like to hear the truth.”

Ziyu said, “I laugh at Long’s preposterous statements to Kong Quan,
that a good archer can hit the back of one arrow with the point of the next
arrow shot, shot after shot striking the last, so that the first arrow is still
sticking out in a straight line without falling while the last arrow is still on
the bowstring.

“Kong Quan was astonished at this, but Long sad, ‘This is not yet
marvelous. Once the disciple of an expert archer got mad at his wife, and in
order to scare her he took a powerful bow and a well-crafted arrow and shot
at her eye. The arrow came right at the pupil of her eye, but she didn’t even
blink. The arrow fell to the ground without raising dust. Are these indeed

the words of a man of wisdom?”

Prince Mou said, “The words of a man of wisdom are not
understood by the ignorant, to be sure. When each following arrow strikes
the one before it, that’s a matter of aligning the following with the
foregoing. When an arrow is aimed at someone’s eye and yet she doesn’t
blink, that means the momentum of the arrow is used up. How can you
wonder?”

Yuezheng Ziyu said, “You’re a follower of Long—how could you
but cover up his flaws? Ill tell you one even worse: Long buffaloed the
King of Wei, saying, ‘Having intention negates mind, having a goal negates
arrival. There is something that does not come to an end, there is a shadow
that does not move. Hair can pull a ton, a white horse is not a horse. An
orphan calf never had a mother.’ His contradictions and perversions are too
numerous to tell.”

Prince Mou said, “You think excellent words preposterous because
you don’t understand them. You are the one who’s preposterous.

“You see, when there are no intentions, then minds are the same;
when there is no goal, everyone’s arrived. That which causes things to
come to an end always exists. The reason a shadow doesn’t move is that
each shift is a new shadow. Hair can pull a thousand pounds because the

stress is distributed equally. A white horse is not a horse in terms of the

disparity between appearance and name. An orphan calf never had a
mother because if it has a mother it isn’t an orphan calf.”

Yuezheng Ziyu said, “You rationalize everything Gongsun Long
crows; you’d take him seriously even if he talked through his ass, saying

“Yes, sir!’ if he farted.”

14

Yao governed the land for fifty years, but didn’t know if the land
was orderly or not, or if the masses supported him or not. He asked his
closest advisers, but they didn’t know. He asked the outer circle at court,
but they didn’t know. He asked the educated who held no office, and they
didn’t know.

Yao then dressed in humble clothing and roamed the streets. He
heard a child singing, “The establishment of our people is all your
achievement, unconsciously and unknowingly following the laws of God.”

Delighted, Yao asked, “Who taught you this?”

The child said, “I heard it from a grandee.”

So he asked the grandee. The grandee said “It’s an ancient song.”

Yao returned to his palace, summoned Shun, and ceded the land to

him. Shun accepted without refusing.

15

The Keeper of the Pass said, “Don’t dwell on yourself, and things
will be clear. Like water in movement, like a mirror in stillness, like an
echo in response, the Way is thus in harmony with people.

“People deviate from the Way on their own; the Way does not
deviate from people. Those who harmonize well with the Way don’t even
need their ears or eyes, don’t use their strength or their mind. If you want to
harmonize with the Way but seek it by means of looking and listening and
formal knowledge, you’ll never attain it.

“When you look it lies ahead, but suddenly it’s behind; try to use it
and it fills the universe, try to dismiss it and no one knows where it is. The
mindful cannot alienate it, the mindless cannot approach it; the only ones
who attain it realize it silently and actualize it naturally. Knowledge
without subjectivity, capability without artifice—these are true knowledge
and true ability.

“If you try to arouse the insensate, how can it feel? If you try to
arouse the inert, how can it act? Itis a mass of matter, a conglomeration of

particles—even if it does nothing, that is not the principle.”

V. Questions of Tang
1

Tang of Yin asked Ji of Xia, “Did anything exist at the beginning of
time?”

Ji of Xia replied, “If there were nothing at the beginning of time,
how could there be anything now? If people in the future say nothing
existed at this time, would that be right?”

Tang of Yin said, “Then have things no order?”

Ji of Xia said, “The endings and beginnings of things have always
been infinite. A beginning may be an end, an end may be a beginning—
how can that start be known? So what is outside of things, prior to events,
is unknown to me.”

Tang of Yin asked, “So are there limits or ends to the zenith, the
nadir, the eight directions?”

Ji said, “I don’t know.” Tang pressed the question. Ji said, “There
is no limit to nothing, there is an end to the existent. How should I know?

“But there is no infinity outside the infinite, no endlessness inside

the endless. The infinite has no infinity, and the endless has no

endlessness. This is how I know there to be the infinite and endless, and
don’t know them to have finite limits.”

Tang also asked, “Is there anything beyond the four seas?”

Ji said, “It’s still the central regions.”

Tang asked, “How do you verify this?”

Ji said, “I traveled east to Ying, and the people were like here.

When I asked about east of Ying, it was also like Ying. I traveled west to
Bing, and the people were like here. When I asked about west of Bing, it
was also like Bing. This is how I know the four seas, the four deserts, and
the four horizons are not different from here.

“Thus great and small contain each other, endlessly, ad infinitum.
Containing all beings is like containing heaven and earth; containing all
beings implies endlessness, containing heaven and earth implies infinitude.
How can I know there is not a bigger heaven and earth outside this heaven
and earth? I don’t know!

“But heaven and earth are still things, and things have flaws. That is
why Nu Wa smelted stones of five hues to patch the sky, and cut the legs off
a giant tortoise to set up the four corners of the earth. Later on Gonggong
fought Zhuanxu for rulership; in their rage they collided with the
Incomplete Mountains, broke the pillars of the sky, and snapped the ties of

the earth. Because of that the sky tilted northwest, and the sun, moon,

planets and stars went with it, while the earth did not fill the southeast, so
the rivers all flowed in that direction.”

Tang also asked, “Do things have great and small, long or short,
sameness and difference?”

Ji said, “Untold thousands of miles east of the Po Sea, there is an
immense abyss, actually a bottomless gorge called the ultimate pool. All
the rivers in the world, and all the rain from the sky, flow into it, and yet it
never swells or subsides.

“There are five mountains in it: the first 1s called Datyu, the second
is called Yuanjiao, the third is called Fanghu, the fourth is called Yingzhou,
and the fifth is called Penglai. These mountains are thirty thousand miles in
height and circumference; the plateaus on their summits extend nine
thousand miles. The mountains are seventy thousand miles apart at their
closest. The buildings on them are all gold and jade, the birds and beasts on
them are all pure white. Trees of pearl and crystal grow in forests on all of
them; the flowers and fruits are very flavorful, and those who eat them
neither age nor die. The people there are all of races of immortals and
sages, with countless numbers of them coming and going by flight in a day
and a night.

“But the bases of these five mountains were not attached anywhere;

they rose and fell repeatedly with the tides, and couldn’t be stabilized. The

immortals and saints, distressed by this, complained to God. God feared
they’d drift to the extreme West, causing the abodes of the immortals and
sages to be lost, and therefore commanded the spirit of the north to have
fifteen giant turtles raise their heads to hold them up; they did it in three
shifts, alternating every sixty thousand years. Only then did the five
mountains stand tall and not move.

“However, a giant from the country of Dragon Elders reached the
five mountains in a few giant strides, and caught six of the turtles on one
hook. Hauling them home on his back, he burnt their shells to practice
divination. As a result, two of the mountains, Datyu and Yuanjiao, drifted
to the north pole and sank into the ocean, and countless immortals and
saints moved away.

“God was angered, and reduced the territory of the Dragon Elders
and shrank the people. In the eras of Fu Xi and Shennong, the people of
that land were still several dozen feet tall.

“Four thousand miles east of the central continent is found the
country of Jiao Yao, where the people are one foot five inches tall. In the
extreme northeast are people called Zheng who are nine inches tall.

“In the south of Xing there is a tree with a spring of five hundred
years and an autumn of five hundred years. In high antiquity there was a

tree with a spring of eight thousand years and an autumn of eight thousand

years. There is a fungus that grows on rot that sprouts in the morning and
dies at night. In the spring and summer months there are insects that are
born when it rains and die when exposed to sunlight.

“North of the extreme north there is a vast ocean, which is the Lake
of Heaven. There 1s a fish there thousand of miles wide and
correspondingly long, called the kun. There is a bird there called the peng
with wings like clouds covering the sky, and a body to match.

“How do people know these things exist? Great Yu saw them in his
travels, Bo Yi recognized and named them, Yi Jian listened and recorded
them.

“There is a minute insect called jiaoming that lives on the river
banks. These can swarm onto the eyelash of a mosquito without bothering
it. They remain residing there, coming and going, without the mosquito
noticing. Even those with the keenest eyesight could not see their form in
the daylight; those with the keenest hearing could not hear their sound at
night. Only the Yellow Emperor and the Master of Expanded Development,
after fasting together for three months on a mountain, their minds dead and
bodies forgotten, eventually saw them, by spiritual vision, as massive as a
mountain; they eventually heard them, listening by energy, as loud as

thunder.

“In the countries of Wu and Chu there is an evergreen tree called
pomelo with a sour red fruit. Consuming its skin and juice will cure
illnesses caused by overexcitement. It was prized in the province of Qi, but
when it was brought north across the Huai River it turned into thick-skinned
orange there. Mynah birds don’t cross the Ji River, badgers die if they cross
the Wen River. The climate makes it so. Even so, though their forms and
energies differ, they are equal in respect to nature, and not interchangeable.
Their lives are complete in themselves, their lots are sufficient unto
themselves. How do I know if they’re great or small? How do I know if
their lives are long or short? How do I know if they’re the same or

different?”

2

The two mountains Great Form and Royal Residence were hundreds
of miles on each side, and one hundred thousand feet tall. Originally they
were situated south of Qi province, north of Hoyang. A certain foolish old
man of North Mountain, already ninety years old, lived facing the
mountains. He was vexed by the mountains blocking the way north,
necessitating a long detour to come and go. He gathered his family to come
up with a plan. He said, “Why don’t we put all our energy into leveling the

route through the south of Yu to the region south of the Han River?”

They agreed as a group, but his wife presented a doubt: “With your
strength, you couldn’t make a dent in a dirt hill—what can you do about
those two immense mountains? And where are you going to put all that
earth and rock?”

Everyone said, “Throw it into the Po Sea, north of the Hidden
Land.”

So he took along three men from among his sons and grandsons to
haul loads, and they broke rock, dug earth, and hauled it to the seashore in
baskets. The widow of the neighbor family had a young son who eagerly
joined them.

It took from winter to summer just to make one round trip. A wise
old man at the river bend laughed at them and tried to stop them, saying,
“Your lack of intelligence is extreme! With the years and energy you’ve got
left, you'll never be able to break off the stalk of a single plant on the
mountain—what can you do about the earth and stone?”

The foolish old man of North Mountain sighed and said, “Your mind
is too inflexible to understand, not even as well as the widow’s boy.

Though I die, my children will survive me; and my children will produce
grandchildren, and my grandchildren will have children, and their children
will have children, and those grandchildren will have children too.

Children and grandchildren will continue to be born generation after

generation, while the mountains will never grow larger—so why worry
about not leveling the mountains?”

The wise old man of the river bend had no reply.

The spirit in charge of snakes heard this, and fearing the task would
never be done, reported it to God. God was moved by their sincerity, and
sent two sons of the titan Kua E to transport the two mountains. One was
placed in the northeast, the other south of Ying. From then on there was no

natural barrier between the south of Ji and the south of the Han River.

3
Father Kua, not assessing his own strength, wanted to chase the
sunlight, and pursued it to the horizon. He got so thirsty he drank up the
Yellow River and the Wei River. The Yellow River and Wei River weren’t
sufficient, so he headed north to drink the great lake. Before he arrived,
however, he died of thirst on the way. The staff he left behind, infused with
the fat and flesh of his body, sprouted the Deng Forest. The Deng Forest is

thousands of miles in size.

4
Yu the Great said, “The earth is illumined by the sun and moon,

regulated by the stars and planets, ordered by the four seasons, and

corresponds to the planet Jupiter. The beings born of spirit differ in form;
some are short-lived, some are long-lived. Only a sage can comprehend the
reason.”

Qi of Xia said, “But there are also those who are born independent
of spirit, formed independent of yin and yang, illumined independent of sun
and moon, short-lived without being killed, long-lived without being
fostered, eat without needing grain, dress without needing cloth, travel
without needing vehicles. Their path is naturally so, not comprehended by

sages.”

5
While Yu was in the process of quelling the Flood, he lost his way and went
to a certain country by mistake. It was on the north edge of the Northern
Ocean, untold thousands of miles from China.

That country was called the Ultimate North, and there’s no telling
where its boundaries were. It had no wind or rain, frost or dew; no birds or
beasts lived there, no insects or fish, no plants or trees. It was completely
flat in all four directions, and ringed by huge mountain ranges.

There was a mountain in the middle of that country called Bottle

Neck, shaped like a bottle, with a round mouth on top, called Opening of

Nourishment, from which there flowed a kind of water called miraculous
spring water, most fragrant and delicious.

This one spring divided into four streams flowing down the
mountain, circulating throughout the whole country, reaching everywhere.
The climate was mild, and there was no pestilence.

The people were by nature genial and agreeable, not competitive or
contentious. They had soft hearts and weak bones; they were not arrogant,
not envious. Older and younger lived as equals, neither ruling nor
subjected; males and females associated freely, without matchmaking or
betrothal. They lived by the water, without plowing or planting; the climate
was mild and agreeable, so they didn’t spin and didn’t wear clothes. They
died when they were a hundred years old, never dying young or falling ill.

The people multiplied prolifically and the population was huge,
beyond counting; they had joy and pleasure, without the sorrow and pain of
deterioration with age.

Their custom was to enjoy singing, and groups of them would take
turns singing all day long. When they got hungry or tired, they’d drink
some of the miraculous spring water, and they’d be refreshed in body and
mind. If they drank too much they’d get intoxicated, and it would take ten
days to sober up. When they bathed in the miraculous spring water, their

skin would become lustrous and fragrant for ten days.

When King Mu of Zhou journeyed north he passed through that
country, and forgot to return for three years. When he did get back to the
House of Zhou, he longed for that country so much that he became
distracted and absent-minded. He didn’t partake of wine or meat, and
didn’t call for his concubines. It was months before he came back to
himself.

When Guan Zhong urged Duke Huan of Qi to make the distant
journey with him to that country, when they were about to get underway Xi
Peng objected, “Your lordship is leaving the immensity of the state of Qi,
the enormity of its population, the beauty of its mountains and rivers, the
abundance of its flora, the maturity of its rites and principles, the aesthetics
of its formal attire, the beautiful women filling the palace, the loyal men
filling the court. You can muster a million troops with a shout, you can
order the lords about just by giving them a look. So what can you possibly
find so attractive about that place that you’d abandon your homeland for a
foreign country? This fellow Guan Zhong is senile—how can you go along
with him?”

So Duke Huan gave up the idea, and told Guan Zhong what Xi Peng
had said. Guan Zhong said, “This is definitely beyond Peng. I’m afraid it’s
the uncertainty about that country. Why be attached to the wealth of Qi?

Why pay attention to the words of Xi Peng?”

6

People in southern countries cut their hair and go naked; people in
northern countries wear turbans and leather garments; people in temperate
countries wear hats and clothing of fabric.

As for what the nine lands provide, some are agricultural, some
commercial; some are hunters and some are fishers. Like wearing leather in
winter and silk in summer, traveling by boat on water and by car on land, it
goes without saying, turning out that way naturally.

East of Yue there is the country Zhemu, where they dismember and
eat their first born, thinking that will enable them to have many sons. When
their grandfathers die, they carry their grandmothers off and abandon them,
saying, “The wife of a ghost can’t live with us.”

South of Chu there is the country of Yanran. When their parents die,
they strip off the flesh and bury the bones; only then can they be considered
filial sons.

West of Qin there is the country of Yiqu. When their parents die,
they pile up firewood and cremate them. As the smoke rises, they call this
going to heaven. Then they qualify as filial sons.

Made into policies by rulers, these are made into customs by

subjects, and so nothing to wonder at.

7

When Confucius was traveling in the East, he saw two children
arguing and asked what it was about.

One child said, “I think the sun is closer to us when it rises, and
further away at noon.”

The other child thought the sun further away when it rises and closer
at noon.

The first child said, “When the sun first rises, it’s big as a parasol,
but at noon it’s the size of a disk—isn’t this because things far away seem
smaller, and things nearby seem bigger?”

The other child said, “It’s cool at sunrise, but hot at midday—isn’t
this because it’s hotter when the sun is nearer and cooler when it’s further
away?”

Confucius couldn’t decide. The children laughed at him, “Who says

you know a lot?”

8
Equilibrium is the ultimate principle on earth; everything in the
domain of form is thus. Hairs of equal length will bear weight hung equally

on them; if the weight on them is different and they snap, it means that the

hairs are not equal in length. If they are equal, even those that would
otherwise snap do not break.

People think it is not so, but there have naturally been those who
realized it is so. Zhan He made a fishing line out of a single strand of silk,
used a prickle from a beard of grain for a hook, took a cane of dwarf
bamboo for a rod, and split a grain of rice for bait. With this he caught a
cartload of fish from a depth of a hundred fathoms, casting into the current
without the line snapping, the hook straightening, or the rod bending.

The King of Chu heard of this and considered it a marvel. He
summoned the man and asked him how he did it. Zhan He said, “I heard
my late father speak of the archery of an ancient bird hunter, using arrows
with strings attached. He used a weak bow and a delicate string, but he shot
with the wind, bagging a pair of orioles at the edge of the blue clouds. His
focused his attention undivided, and he moved his hands in balance.

“I learned fishing by imitating that example. It took me five years
to master the method. When I am at the riverside holding my fishing pole,
there are no random thoughts in my mind, only thought of fish; when I cast
my line and sink my hook, there’s no resistance in my hands, so nothing can
cause any disturbance. Fish see the bait on my hook like sinking dust or a
bunch of froth, and swallow it without hesitation. Thus I can control

strength by weakness, bring in the heavy by means of the light. If Your

Majesty could really govern the country like this, then the empire could be
operated with one hand. What else would you have to do?”

The King of Chu said, “Good!”

9

When Gong Hu of Lu and Qi Ying of Zhao fell ill, they both sought
a cure from Pian Qiao.

Pian Qiao cured them. Once they had recovered, he said to Gong
Hu and Qi Ying, “The sickness you suffered was something from outside
that affected your internal organs, so it could be eliminated by medicine.
Now you have a disease that you were born with and has grown along with
your bodies. How about if I treat you for it now?”

The two men said, “Let us first hear the symptoms.”

Pian Qiao said, to Gong Hu, “Your will is strong, while your energy
is weak, so you can plan adequately but are lacking in resolution. Qi Ying
has a weak will but his energy is strong, so he’s lacking in thought while
excessive in persistence. If you exchange hearts, that will balance your
qualities.”

Pian Qiao then had the two men drink a toxic liquor that put them

into a coma for three days. He cut open their chests, took out their hearts,

and exchanged them. Then he administered a miraculous drug, and they
woke up.

Taking their leave, the two went home. But now Gong Hu went to
Qi Ying’s house and tried to assert authority over his wife and children.
The wife and children didn’t acknowledge him. Qi Ying, for his part, went
to Gong Hu’s house and asserted authority over his wife and children. The
wife and children didn’t acknowledge him either.

The two families sued each other, and demanded an explanation
from Pian Qiao. Pian Qiao explained the reason, so the lawsuits were

dropped.

10

When Pao Ba played the lute, birds danced and fish frolicked.

When Music Master Wen of Zheng heard of this, he left home to follow
Music Master Xiang. Tuning his instrument, he didn’t play a piece for three
years. Master Xiang said, “You can go home.”

Master Wen set aside his lute and lamented, “It’s not that I can’t
tune it, and not that I can’t play a piece. What I have in mind is not in the
strings, my intent is not in the sound. Inwardly I can’t find it in my mind,
outwardly it doesn’t resonate in the instrument; so I don’t dare try to play.

Give me a little more time, to see what’s next.”

In no time at all he came back to see Master Xiang. Master Xiang
said, “How is your lute?”

Master Wen said, “I’ve got it. Here’s a sample for you.” At that
time it was spring, but he plucked the metallic notes to evoke the key of
autumn, whereupon a cool breeze suddenly came, and the fruits of the
plants and trees were fully developed. Come autumn, he plucked the
wooden notes to produce the key of spring, and a warm breeze slowly
swirled, and the plants and trees burst into bloom. In summer, he plucked
the water notes to produce the key of winter, whereupon frost and snow fell,
the rivers and lakes suddenly froze. When winter came, he plucked the fire
notes to produce the key of summer, whereupon the sunlight burned fiercely
and solid ice melted instantly. As he was concluding, he played all four
strings in the designated keys, and an auspicious breeze swirled, felicitous
clouds floated, sweet dew descended, and delicious springs bubbled up.

Impressed, Master Xiang said with enthusiasm, “Your playing is
refined indeed! Even the pure notes of Master Guang and the pitch of Zou
Yan have nothing to add to this. They would simply have to pack up their

lute and pipes and follow after you.”

11

Tan of Xue studied singing with Qing of Qin. Thinking he’d
mastered Qing’s art before he really had, Tan took leave to go back home.
Qing didn’t try to stop him, but as a parting gift at the highway outside the
city he sang a sad song. His voice made the trees in the forest vibrate; the
resonance halted passing clouds.

Now Tan of Xue apologized and sought to return, never presuming
to speak of going back home for the rest of his life.

Qing of Qin turned and said to his companions, “Long ago when E
of Han went east to Qi, she ran out of supplies, so when she passed the Gate
of Harmony into Qi she sold songs for food. After she’d gone, lingering
notes wound around the roof beams for three whole days, so the people
around thought she hadn’t left.

“She went by an inn, but the people at the inn insulted her. So E of
Han cried mournfully, in long, drawn-out tones. Everyone in the
neighborhood, old and young, was saddened; looking at each other with
tears in their eyes, they couldn’t eat for three days. Finally they went after
her. E came back and sang again, drawing out the notes, a long song.
Everyone in the neighborhood, old and young, jumped for joy, clapping and
dancing, unable to restrain themselves, forgetting their earlier sadness.

Then they saw her off with plenty of gifts.

“For this reason, the people of the Gate of Harmony are good at
singing and keening to this day, emulating the tradition of voicing left by

E.”

12

Bo Ya was good at playing the lute. Zhong Ziqi was good at
listening. When Bo Ya played the lute with his mind on climbing high
mountains, Zhong Ziqi said, “Wow! High on Mount Tai!” When Bo Ya’s
mind was on flowing water, Zhong Ziqi said, “Wow! Vast as the Yangzi and
Yellow Rivers!” Whatever Bo Ya thought of, Zhong Ziqi would always get
it.

When Bo Ya journeyed to the north peak of Mount Tai, he suddenly
got caught in a storm and stayed under a cliff. Feeling melancholy, he
played his lute. First he composed a lament on continuous rain, then he
recreated the sound of an avalanche.

When he performed each of these pieces, Zhong Ziqi comprehended
their sense at once. Bo Ya then put his lute down and said with a sigh,
“Your listening is very skillful indeed! The intent, conception, and image

are like my mind—where can I conceal my voice?”

13

When King Mu of Zhou went West touring, he crossed the Kunlun
Mountains to Mount Yan [where the sun was thought to set]. On his way
back, before reaching China, by the roadside there was an artisan named
Yan, to whom King Mu granted an audience.

“What skills do you have?” inquired the King.

“PI try whatever the King commands,” replied Maestro Yan, “but
I’ve already made something, which I hope the King will look at first.”

King Mu said, “Bring it tomorrow, and I'll look at it with you.”

The next day Maestro Yan visited the King. Granting him an
audience, the King asked, “Who is this accompanying you?”

Maestro Yan replied, “It’s a performer I’ve created.”

King Mu looked at it with astonishment. Its movements and
gestures were those of a real human being. When the artisan pressed its
cheek, it sang in tune; when he raised its hand, it danced in rhythm. It did
all sorts of things, whatever one wished. The King thought it was a real
human being, and watched it with his Queen and concubines.

When the performance was over, the performer winked seductively
at the concubines surrounding the King. The King was enraged; he wanted
to execute Maestro Yan at once. Terrified, Maestro Yan immediately cut
the performer into pieces to show the King it was made of a conglomeration

of leather, wood, glue, lacquer, and colors.

The King examined it carefully. Inside were liver and gall bladder,
heart and lungs, spleen and kidneys, intestines and stomach. Outside were
tendons and bones, limbs and joints, skin and down, teeth and hair. They
were all artificial, but all there.

Reassembled, it was restored to the way it was when he first saw it.
As an experiment, the King removed the heart, whereupon the mouth could
not speak. He removed the liver, whereupon the eyes could not see. He
removed the kidneys, whereupon the legs could not walk.

Now King Mu was pleased. He said admiringly, “Can human skill
achieve the same effects as the Creator?” Calling for his second car, he had
the thing loaded onto it to carry it back to China.

Well, Pan Yu’s ladder to the clouds and Mo Di’s hang glider they
themselves considered the epitome of skill, but when their disciples heard
tell of Master Yan’s skill, they reported this to the two masters. The two
masters never presumed to speak of art again for the rest of their lives,

though they took up the compass and square at times.

14
Gan Ying was an expert archer of old. When he drew his bow,
animals lay prostrate and birds came down. His disciple, named Fei Wei,

studied archery with Gan Ying, and his skill surpassed his teacher.

A certain Ji Chang then studied archery with Fei Wei. Fei Wei told
him, “First learn not to blink; then we can talk about archery.”

Ji Chang went home and lay face up under his wife’s loom, such
that his eyes were in line with the treadle. After two years, he wouldn’t
blink even with an awl poking at his wide-open eye. He went and told Fei
Wei.

Fei Wei said, “Not yet. Now you'll have to learn looking. Tell me
when you see the small as if it were large, and see the minute as if it were
distinct.”

Chang hung a louse by a hair in his window, and looked at it facing
south. In ten days it gradually grew larger; after three years it seemed as
big as a cartwheel. Now when he looked at other things this way, they were
all mountainous. Then, using a horn bow and a cane arrow, he shot the
louse through the head without snapping the thread on which it hung.

He told Fei Wei about this. Fei Wei enthusiastically declared,
“You’ve got it!”

Now that Ji Chang had mastered Fei Wei’s art, he reckoned he was
the only one in the world who could rival him. So he plotted to kill Fei
Wei.

Meeting in an open field, the two men shot at each other: their

arrow points met in mid-air and the arrows fell to the ground, yet the dust

didn’t stir.
Fei Wei ran out of arrows first. Ji Cheng had one arrow left; he
shot, but Fei Wei stopped it with the tip of a thorn, with perfect accuracy.
Now the two masters threw down their bows weeping and bowed to
each other on the road. Adopting each other as father and son, they made a

solemn oath never to teach the art to anyone.

15

The charioteer Zaofu’s teacher was Mr. Taitou. When Zaofu began
to learn chariot driving from him, he was strictly courteous and very
humble, but Taitou didn’t tell him anything for three years. Zaofu became
even more punctilious in his manners, until Taitou finally told him, “An
ancient poem says, “The son of a good bow maker must first make baskets;
the son of a good smith must first make bellows.’ First watch me run.
When you can run like me, then you can hold six bridles and control six
horses.”

Taitou then set up a line of wooden posts, each just big enough for a
foot, placed a pace apart. Stepping on these, he ran back and forth without
stumbling or slipping.

Zaofu practiced this, and mastered the skill in three days. Taitou

praised him, “How adroit you are! You got it so quickly! Charioteering is

also like this—as you were running just now, you found it in your feet,
responding to it in your mind. Applying this to charioteering, you equalize
the team at the border of bridle and bit, adjust speed where the lips join,
regulate measure at the center of the chest, and keep pace in your grip.

“By mastering it inwardly in the innermost mind, while outwardly
according with the will of the horses, it is thus possible to go back and forth
on a straight line, turn around with precision, and go long distances with
energy to spare, having truly attained the art.

“What you feel in the bit, respond to with the bridle; what you feel
in the bridle, respond to with your hands; what you feel in your hands,
respond to in your mind. Then you don’t use your eyes to look, don’t use
your whip to drive; your mind is at ease, your body’s upright, the six bridles
don’t tangle, and twenty-four hooves don’t miss a step. Wheeling around,
going back and forth, all are perfectly orderly.

“After that, even if the track is no wider than your wheels, and
there’s no ground beyond your horses’ hooves, you never sense the
steepness of the mountains and valleys, or the flatness of the plains and
marshes, seeing them as one. This is the consummation of my art. Take

note of it!”

16

Hei Luan of Wei killed Qiu Pingzhang out of personal enmity. Qiu
Pingzhang’s son Laidan planned to avenge his father’s murder.

Laidan’s temper was very fierce, but physically he was very slight;
he ate rice by the grain and went along with the wind when he ran. Even in
anger he couldn’t handle a weapon to strike back. He was ashamed to rely
on another’s power, and vowed to wield the sword himself to slay Hei
Luan.

Hei Luan was extraordinarily cruel and ruthless, and he had the
strength of a hundred men. His sinews and bones, skin and muscles, were
not like those of a human: he could take a sword to the neck and an arrow
to the chest, and the blade would bend and the point would break, while his
body remained unscathed. Proud of his physical strength, he looked upon
Laidan as like a chick.

Laidan’s friend Shen Ta said, “Your hatred for Laiduan is total,
while his contempt for you is extreme. What is your strategy for handling
him?”

Weeping, Laiduan said, “Please devise a strategy for me.”

Shen Ta said, “I’ve heard of Kong Zhou of Wei that his ancestor

obtained the jade swords of the Emperor of Yin. A single boy armed with

them can repulse the troops of three armies—why don’t you ask him for
them?”

So Laiduan went to Wei and met Kong Zhou. In a humble manner,
he first asked him to take his wife and children, then said what he wanted.

Kong Zhou said, “I have three swords from which you may choose.
None of them can kill a man, but let me first describe them.

“One is called ‘imbued with light.’ You cannot see it when you look
at it, and you don’t sense it’s there when you wield it. It leaves no cut
where it strikes, passing through someone without their even noticing.

“The second is called ‘shadowed.’ If you look at it facing north in
the dawn or dusk twilight there vaguely seems to be something there, but no
one can discern its appearance. There is a faint sound when it strikes, but it
goes through people without their feeling pain.

“The third is called ‘tempered by night.’ In the daytime you can see
its shadow but not its shine; at night you can see its shine but not its
shadow. Where it strikes, it slices through, but the wound closes right up as
the blade passes, so it feels painful but doesn’t bloody the blade.

“These three treasures have been passed on for thirteen generations,
but have never actually been used. I’ve kept them sheathed and stored,
never once breaking the seals.”

Laidan said, “Even so, I must ask for the least of them.”

Kong Zhong then returned his wife and children and fasted with him
for seven days, then at twilight he knelt down and presented him with the
least of the swords. Laidan prostrated himself twice, accepted it, and went
back home with it.

Laidan then went after Hei Luan sword in hand. At the time Hei
Luan was lying drunk under a window. Laidan slashed him thrice from his
neck to his waist. Hei Luan didn’t wake up.

Thinking Hei Luan was dead, Laidan beat a hasty retreat. Running
into Hei Luan’s son at the gate, he struck at him thrice, but it was like
hitting empty space.

Hei Luan’s son laughed and said, “Why are you fooling with me this
way, beckoning me thrice?”

Laidan realized the sword couldn’t kill people, so he went home
lamenting.

When Hei Luan woke up, he got angry at his wife. He said,
“Leaving me uncovered while I was drunk, you’ve caused me to come
down with a sore throat and pain in the waist.”

His son said, “When Laidan came a while ago, he met me at the gate
and beckoned me three times; it’s made my body ache and my limbs stiff

{??

too. He must have put a curse on us

17

When King Mu of Zhou made a major expedition against peoples of
the West, the peoples of the West presented him with a special dagger and
asbestos cloth. The dagger was eighteen inches long, made of tempered
steel, with a red edge. It could cut through jade like cutting through mud.
As for the asbestos cloth, it had to be put in fire to be laundered; the cloth
would turn the color of fire, while the grime would turn the color of cloth.
When taken out of the fire and shaken, the cloth would be white as snow.

The crown prince thought there were no such things, and that those
who told of them were mistaken. Xiao Shu said, “The prince is ultimately

fixated on his own belief, consequently repudiating truth.”

VI. Effort and Destiny
1

Effort said to Destiny, “How can your effect compare to mine?”

Destiny said, “What effect do you have on beings that can compare
to mine?”

Effort said, “Long life or premature death, failure or success,
nobility or abasement, poverty or prosperity—this is what I, effort, am
capable of.”

Destiny said, “The wisdom of Grandfather Peng was not superior to
Yao or Shun, yet he lived to be eight hundred years old. The talent of Yan
Yuan was not inferior to common people, yet he only lived to be eighteen.
The virtue of Confucius was not less than the lords, yet he was blockaded
between Chen and Cai. The conduct of King Zhou of Yin was not better
than the Three Humanitarians, yet he occupied the position of ruler.

“Ji Cha, [though known for intelligence], never had any rank in Wu,
whereas Tian Huang [a briber and assassin] monopolized the state of Qi.
[Loyalists] Yi and Qi starved to death on Shouyang, while the Ji clan grew

richer than [the moralist] Liu Xiahui.

“Tf this is your doing, Effort, why lengthen one’s life while
shortening another’s? Why cast sages in desperate straits while granting
perverts success? Why debase the intelligent and ennoble the foolish?
Why impoverish the good and enrich the evil?”

Effort said, “If things are as you say, then I certainly have no effect
on people. So if people are like this, is this under your control?”

Destiny said, “Once you call it destiny, how can there be anyone
controlling it? I push it along when it is straight, let it go when it twists and
turns. One naturally lives long or naturally dies young, naturally becomes
desperate or naturally attains success, is naturally ennobled or naturally
abased, naturally prospers or is naturally impoverished. How can I know

why? How can I know why?”

2
Beigongzi said to Ximenzi, “We are peers, but you are the one
people have helped to succeed; we are of the same clan, yet you are the one
people respect; we are of similar appearance, yet you are the one people
admire; we are equally eloquent, yet you are the one people employ; our
conduct is the same, yet you are the one people trust; our offices are equal,
yet you are the one people honor; our farms are equal, yet you are the one

people enrich; our commerce is equal, yet you are the one people profit. I

wear poor clothes, eat simple food, live in a reed cottage, and travel on foot;
you wear brocade, eat polished rice and filleted meat, live in a big house,
and travel with a team of four horses. At home you gladly ignore me, at
court you plainly show contempt for me. It’s been years since we visited
one another or went out together. Do you think your virtue superior to
mine?”

Ximenzi said, “I have no way to know whether that’s true, but you
fail at things while I succeed—isn’t this evidence of disparity in our
endowments? Yet you consider yourself equal to me in every way—you’re
certainly brazen!”

Beigongzi had no reply; he went home dejected. On the way he met
Master Dongguo. The master asked, “Where have you been, that you are
returning walking alone with a look of profound shame?”

Beigongzi told him what had happened.

Master Dongguo said, “I will relieve your shame; Ill go back to
Ximenzi with you and question him.”

He said, “Tell me, why did you humiliate Beigongzi so deeply?”

Ximenzi said, “Beigongzi said he was equal to me in family status,
age and appearance, speech and conduct, yet different from me in rank and
riches. I told him that I had no way of knowing the truth of the matter, but

he fails at things where I succeed, and perhaps this is evidence of difference

in endowment; so for him to say he’s my equal in everything is impudence
on his part.”

Master Dongguo said, “When you speak of difference in
endowment, you’re only talking about differences in talent and virtue. The
difference in endowment of which I speak is otherwise. Beigongzi is rich in
virtue, poor in fate; you are rich in fate, poor in virtue. Your success is not
obtained by wisdom, while Beigongzi’s failures are not by way of mistakes
due to folly. Both are from Nature, not humankind; so your pride in
richness of fate and Beigongzi’s shame at richness of virtue both fail to
recognize a pattern of necessity.”

Ximenzi said, “Master, stop! I dare say no more.”

After Beigongzi returned home, when he wore his cotton and wool
clothing it was as warm as leather and fur; when he ate his beans, they were
as tasty as polished rice; when he sheltered in his reed hut, it protected him
like a mansion; when he rode his wicker cart, it was as fancy as a decorated
carriage. At ease for the rest of his life, he was not aware of glory or
disgrace in himself or in others.

Hearing of this, Master Dongguo said, “Beigongzi had been asleep
for a long time, but he was able to wake up at a single statement. He was

{??

easily enlightened

3

Guan Yiwu and Bao Shuya were very close friends. They both lived
in Qi. Guan Yiwu attended the duke’s son Jiu, while Bao Shuya attended
the duke’s son Xiaobo.

There was a lot of favoritism in the clan of the duke of Qi, and his
sons by his wife and concubines had equal standing. The citizens feared a
civil war. Guan Yiwu and Shao Hu fled to Lu in the service of the duke’s
son Jiu, while Bao Shuya fled to Ju in the service of the duke’s son Xiaobo.

Subsequently Gongsun Wuzhi attempted a coup; Qi had no
legitimate ruler, and the two sons of the Duke fought to take over. Guan
Yiwu battled Xiaobo in Ju, during the course of which he shot an arrow that
hit Xiaobo’s belt buckle.

After Xiaobo had been established as Duke Huan, he intimidated Lu
into killing his brother Jiu; Shao Hu committed suicide on that account, and
Guan Yiwu was imprisoned.

Bao Shuya said to Duke Huan, “Guan Yiwu is capable; he can
govern the state.”

Duke Huan said, “He is my enemy; I want to kill him.”

Bao Shuya said, “I have heard that an intelligent ruler has no private

grudges. If someone can work for his employer, he can certainly work for

his ruler. If you want hegemony or kingship, you cannot succeed without
Yiwu. You must release him!”

In the end the Duke called for Guan Zhong (Yiwu), and the state of
Lu returned him to the state of Qi. Bao Shuya greeted him outside the city
and removed his fetters. Duke Huan treated him with courtesy and put him
in a position higher than the leading Gao and Guo families. Bao Shuya
subordinated himself to him. Entrusted with the administration of the state,
he was dubbed Father Zhong. Duke Huan subsequently became Overlord.

Guan Zhong once said in praise, “When I was in straits in my youth,
Bao Shu and I were once business partners. When it came to dividing the
money I gave more to myself, but Bao Shu didn’t consider me greedy
because he knew I was poor. When I used to plan enterprises for Bao Shu I
went bankrupt, but Bao Shu didn’t consider me stupid, because he knows
that times may be opportune or inopportune. I served in office three times
and was discharged all three times by the ruler, yet Bao Shu didn’t consider
me unworthy, because he knew my time hadn’t come. I went to war three
times and fled all three times, yet Bao Shu didn’t consider me cowardly,
because he knew I had an elderly mother. When the duke’s son Jiu was
destroyed and Shao Hu committed suicide on his account, I accepted
imprisonment and disgrace, but Bao Shu didn’t consider me shameless,

because he knew that instead of being ashamed over a minor sense of duty I

was ashamed of not being distinguished throughout the land. The ones who
gave me life were my parents, but the one who knows me is Bao Shu.”

With this it is customary to cite Guan and Bao as examples of skill
in association, and Xiaobo as an example of skill in employing the capable.
But there was really no skill in association, really no skill in employing the
capable; yet it is not that there is greater skill in association, not that there is
greater skill in employing the capable. Shao Hu did not commit suicide by
virtue of his capability; he had no choice but to die. Bao Shu did not
recommend a savant by virtue of his own competence; he had no choice but
to recommend a savant. Xiaobo did not employ an enemy because he was
skillful; he had no choice but to employ an enemy.

When Guan Zhong became ill, Xiaobo inquired of him, “Your
illness is serious, Father Zhong, and may be fatal. If you become critically
ill, who should I entrust with the state?”

Guan Zhong said, “Who do you want?”

Xiaobo said, “Bao Shuya will do.”

“No, he won’t. He is so puritanical that he won’t associate with
anyone unlike himself, and once he’s heard of a fault in a person he never
forgets it all his life. If you let him administer the state, he’ Il be
investigating the ruler above and imposing on the people below. It

wouldn’t be long before he’d be punished by the ruler.”

Xiaobo said, “Then who will do?”

“If there’s no alternative, then Xi Peng will do. He is the sort of
man whom superiors forget about and inferiors do not disobey. He is
ashamed of not being comparable to the Yellow Emperor, and feels
compassion for those who are not comparable to him.

“Those who distribute virtue to others are called sages; those who
distribute wealth to others are called savants. Those who use sagacity to
lord over others have never won people, while those who use sagacity to
humble themselves to others have never failed to win people—regarding
the state, there is that which they don’t hear; and regarding the home, there
is that which they don’t see. If there is no other choice, then Xi Peng will
do.”

But Guan Yiwu was not slighting Bao Shu—he could not but slight
him. He was not favoring Xi Peng—he could not but favor him. When you
favor someone at first, you may wind up slighting them; when you slight
someone at first, you may wind up favoring them. The going and coming

of favoring and slighting do not derive from oneself.

4
Deng Xi manipulated ambiguous propositions to set forth

inexhaustible rhetoric. He wrote the criminal code applied by the state of

Zheng when Zichan was in charge of government; he repeatedly criticized
Zichan’s administration, and Zichan yielded to him. Then Zichan had him
arrested and disgraced, and summarily executed.

So Zichan applied the criminal code, not because he could, but
because he had to. Deng Xi restrained Zichan, not because he could, but
because he had to. Zichan executed Deng Xi, not because he could, but

because he had to.

5

To live when you can live is a blessing from Nature. To die when
you should die is a blessing from Nature. Not living when you can live is a
penalty from Nature. Not dying when you should die is a penalty from
Nature. To be able to live and ready to die, then to live and to die,
sometimes happens; to die when it’s right to live and live when it’s right to
die sometimes happens. But what gives life to the living and death to the
dying is not a thing and not self; it is all destiny, about which intelligence
can do nothing.

So it is said,

Mysterious and boundless, the course of Nature organizes itself;

Silent and undivided, the course of Creation operates itself.

Sky and earth cannot impinge upon it; sages’ knowledge cannot
affect it,

Ghosts and spirits cannot deceive it.

That which is naturally so silently accomplishes it,

Balances it and stabilizes it, sends it off and welcomes it.

6
Yang Zhu’s friend Ji Liang got sick, and worsened for seven days.
His sons surrounded him and wept over him, calling for physicians.
Ji Liang said to Yang Zhu, “This is how disgraceful my sons are!
Why don’t you compose a song for me to enlighten them?”
Yang Zhu sang,
Even God does not know—
How can humanity realize?
Its not that blessings come from God,
Nor do curses come from Man.
Me? You? We dont know!
Doctors? Shamans? How would they know?
But the sons didn’t understand, and wound up consulting three physicians,
one named Jiao, one named Yu, and one named Lu, who tried to diagnose

the illness.

Mr. Jiao told Ji Liang, “Your cold and warmth are unregulated,
emptiness and fullness are out of order. Your sickness comes from
overeating and lustfulness, such that your vitality and thought are troubled
and scattered. It is neither divine nor demonic. Although it’s progressing,
it can be cured.”

Ji Liang said, “This is a common doctor—dismiss him at once!”

Mr. Yu said, “You were lacking in energy from the first, even in the
womb, and had too much breast milk. This illness didn’t happen overnight,
but came about gradually. It can’t be cured.”

Ji Liang said, “This is a good doctor—feed him, at least.”

Mr. Lu said, “Your illness doesn’t come from Heaven or from
humans, nor indeed from ghosts. As we are endowed with life and
embodied, since there is that which regulates them, there must be that
which governs them. What can herbs and needles do for you?”

Ji Liang said, “This is a spiritual doctor—send him home with a rich
reward.”

In no time at all Ji Liang’s illness spontaneously healed.

7
Life cannot be preserved by valuing it, the body cannot be taken

care of by cherishing it. Life cannot be shortened by despising it either, nor

can the body be neglected by disregarding it.

So you may not survive even if you value life, and may not die even
if you despise it. Cherishing the body may not take care of it, while
disregarding it may not be neglect.

This seems contradictory, but it is not; it’s a matter of living
naturally and dying naturally, caring naturally and neglecting naturally.

Then again, you may live by valuing it, or die by despising it; you
may take care by cherishing, or fall into neglect by disregard. This seems
logical, but it is not; this too is living naturally and dying naturally, caring
naturally and neglecting naturally.

Yu Xiong said to King Wen, “Natural longevity is not an addition;
natural brevity is not a diminution. What is lost by calculating?”

Lao Ran said to the Keeper of the Pass, “Who knows the reasons for
Creation’s disapproval?”

So it’s better not to look to the divine will and try to figure out gain

and loss.

8
Yang Bu asked, “Here are people quite similar in age, property,
talent, and appearance, yet quite different in longevity, status, reputation,

and inclination. I’m confused by this.”

Master Yang Zhu said, “People of ancient times had a saying; I have
memorized it, and Pll tell you—What is so without anyone knowing why it
is so is destiny.

“Tn the present obscurity and confusion, whatever is done or
undone, the days come and go, but who can know the reason? It’s all
destiny.

“Those who trust destiny are oblivious of long life or early death;
those who trust intrinsic order are oblivious of affirmation and negation;
those who trust mind are oblivious of opposition and accord; those who
trust nature are oblivious of safety and danger. This is called being entirely
oblivious of objects of belief, entirely oblivious of objects of disbelief. This
is true, this is genuine; why reject; why embrace? Why lament, why
rejoice? Why act, why refrain?

“A book of the Yellow Emperor says, ‘Perfected people are as if
dead when at rest, like a machine in action. They don’t even know why
they’re at rest, and don’t even know why they’re not at rest; they don’t even
know why they act, and don’t even know why they don’t act. They don’t
change their inner states or outward appearances because people are
watching, and they don’t change their inner states or outward appearances
when they think no one is watching. They come and go on their own, they

appear and disappear on their own. Who can block their way?’”

9

Ink Piss, Fanatic, Lazy, and Hasty traveled the world together, each
doing as he liked. To the end of their years they never knew each others’
state of mind, as each one thought his own wisdom most profound.

Tricky, Simple, Artless, and Fawning traveled the world together,
each doing as he liked. To the end of their years they never spoke to each
other, as each one thought his own skill most subtle.

Withdrawn, Candid, Stammerer, and Scold traveled the world
together, each doing as he liked. To the end of their years they never
understood each other, as each one thought his own talent adequate.

Con-Man, Buck-Passer, Bold, and Timid traveled the world
together, each doing as he liked. To the end of their years they never
criticized each other, because each one thought his own conduct
unobjectionable.

Conformist, Individualist, Opportunist, and Independent traveled the
world together, each doing as he liked. To the end of their years they never
paid attention to each other, each one thinking himself in harmony with the
times.

These are a multiplicity of attitudes. They are not the same in

appearance, but all are alike in saying it was their destiny.

10

Fortuitous success seems like success but is not success at all.
Fortuitous failure seems like failure, but is not failure at all.

So confusion produces semblance, and the boundaries of semblance
are obscure. If you are not muddled in the midst of the seeming, then you
will not be alarmed by external calamities and will not rejoice over internal
blessings; acting according to the time, inactive according to the time, you
are inscrutable even to savants.

Those who trust destiny do not have different attitudes towards
others and self. Those with different attitudes toward other and self would
be better off covering their eyes and blocking their ears so they won’t totter
and fall even if there’s a cliff behind them and an empty moat in front of
them.

So it is said that death and life come from destiny, poverty and
riches depend on the times. Those who resent early death are those who do
not know destiny; those who resent poverty are those who do not know the
times. To be unafraid in face of death and undisturbed in straits is a matter
of knowing destiny and resting content with the times.

Suppose people with a lot of intelligence calculate gain and loss,

weigh falsehood and truth, and assess people’s states of mind; they’ ll

succeed half the time and fail half the time. People with little intelligence
don’t calculate gain and loss, don’t weigh falsehood and truth, and don’t
assess people’s states of mind, yet they too succeed half the time and fail
half the time. Calculating or not calculating, weighing or not weighing,
assessing or not assessing—what’s the difference? Only when there is
nothing calculated and nothing not calculated is there completeness,
without loss. Yet it is not a matter of completeness through knowledge, nor
loss through knowledge. It is inherent completeness, spontaneous oblivion,

and natural loss.

11

When Duke Jing of Qi traveled to Ox Mountain, he gazed
northward on his capital city and wept. “What a beautiful country,” he said,
“green and growing so richly! How is it that I must leave this land with the
flow of time and die? If there were no death, where would I go from here?”

Shi Kong and Liang Qiuju both wept along with him. “We are
dependent upon your grace—we can only get coarse grain and poor meat to
eat, and can only have ordinary horses and simple carts to ride, and yet even
at that we don’t want to die—how much less our lord!”

Yanzi alone stood aside, laughing. The Duke wiped away his tears,

looked at Yanzi, and said, “Kong and Ju are both weeping along with me in

this sadness of journeying I feel today. Why are you laughing by yourself?”

Yanzi replied, “If savants could keep this forever, then Taigong and
Duke Huan would have kept it forever. If stalwarts could keep this forever,
then Duke Zhuang and Duke Ling would have kept it forever. With several
lords to look after this, you then, my lord, would be standing in the fields in
reed raingear, worried only about work—how would you have time to
worry about death?

“And how did you get your position anyway? Because of
successive occupation and departure. Now that it’s come to you, for you to
be the only one to weep over it is inhumane. When we see an inhumane
ruler, we see flattering ministers. When I saw these two, that’s why I was
laughing to myself.”

Duke Jing was ashamed. Raising his goblet, he penalized himself.

He penalized the two ministers two goblets each.

12
Among the population of Wei there was a certain Dongmen Wu.
His son died, but he wasn’t sad. His wife said, “No one in the world loved
a son as you did; now he’s dead, so why aren’t you sad?”
Dongmen Wu said, “I had no son before. When I had no son I

wasn’t sad; now that my son is dead, it’s the same as before when I had no

son. Why should I grieve?”

13
Farmers follow the seasons, merchants head for profit, artisans
pursue skills, officials go after power. Conditions dictate this. However,
farmers experience flood and drought, merchants may gain or lose, artisans
may succeed or fail, officials may or may not get opportunities. Destiny

dictates this.

VII. Yang Zhu
1

Yang Zhu traveled to Lu, where he lodged with the Meng family.

Mr. Meng asked, “People are just what they are—what’s the use of
reputation?”

“Those who can make use of reputation get rich.”

“Once they’ve gotten rich, why don’t they stop?”

“They use it for status.”

“Once they’re respectable, why don’t they stop?”

“On account of death.”

“Once they’re dead, what’s the use?”

“For their descendants.”

“How can reputation benefit descendants?”

“People undergo stress and strain for fame, but if they can take
advantage of it the benefits extend to the clan, the advantages extend to
neighbors and friends—how much the more their direct descendants!”

“Whoever strives for good results must be honest, but honesty
means poverty. Whoever strives for good repute must be deferential, but

deference means lowliness.”

“When Guan Zhong was prime minister of Qi, he partied when the
lord partied, and lived in luxury when the lord lived in luxury. United in
mind and concurring in speech, his policies were effective and the state
became dominant. But after he died, the Guan family faded out. When Mr.
Tian was prime minister of Qi, he humbled himself when the lord was
inflated, and he was generous when the lord was stingy. The people were
all loyal to him, and because of this he owned the state of Qi and his
descendants have enjoyed this all the way up to the present day.”

“Tt seems that real fame leads to poverty, whereas artificial fame
leads to wealth.

“Reality has no fame, fame has no reality. Fame is entirely
artificial. In ancient times Yao and Shun pretended to abdicate to Xu You
and Shan Juan, but they didn’t lose the realm, and reigned for a hundred
years. Bo Yi and Shou Qi really did abdicate the throne of Guzhu and
wound up losing the state and dying of starvation on Mt. Shouyang. This is

how clear the distinction between reality and falsehood is.”

2
Yang Zhu said, “The general limit of life span is a hundred years,
but hardly one in a thousand actually lives a hundred years. Even if there is

one who does, nearly half of that is taken up by infancy and senility. What

is spent in sleep at night or overlooked while awake by day also takes
nearly half of what’s left. Pain and sickness, sorrow and suffering, loss,
worry, and fear also take up nearly half of what’s left. Out of the ten or so
years left over, figure how much is unburdened and content, with no
preoccupying worries—not even an hour!

“So what are people to do with their lives? What is there to enjoy?
They strive for fine food and clothing, for music and beauties, but they
cannot always be sated with fine food and clothing, and they cannot always
be dallying with music and beauties. They are also inhibited and
encouraged by penalties and rewards, controlled by conventions and laws.
They compete restlessly for empty fame in their time, counting on
continuing glory after death. They go along minding what their eyes and
ears see and hear, caring only about what their bodies and minds approve or
disapprove. Missing out on the supreme happiness of the present, they
cannot be free for even an hour. How is that different from being
imprisoned and shackled?

“Tn high antiquity people knew life is a temporary visit, and they
knew death is a temporary journey; so they acted as they wished, not
avoiding natural inclinations. They didn’t reject personal pleasures, so they
weren’t motivated by reputation. Going along naturally, they did not

oppose the predilections of myriad beings, and they did not grasp for fame

after death, so they weren’t affected by punishments. They did not calculate

precedence of name and fame, or length or brevity of life.”

3

Yang Zhu said, “Myriad beings differ in life but are the same in
death. In life there are the wise and the foolish, the noble and the base; they
differ in these. In death there are stench and rotting, decomposition and
disintegration—they are the same in these.

“However, wisdom and folly, nobility and baseness, are not under
our control; stench and rotting, decomposition and disintegration are not
under our control either. So life is not something we produce, death is not
something we make fatal, wisdom is not something we make wise, folly is
not something we make foolish, nobility is not something we make noble,
baseness is not something we make base.

“Thus myriad beings equally live and equally die, are equally wise
and equally foolish, equally noble and equally base. Some die in ten years,
some die in a hundred years. The humane and sagacious also die, and the
cruel and ignorant also die. In life they may be [sage kings like] Yao or
Shun, but in death they are rotting bones; in life they may be [corrupt kings

like] Jie or Zhou, but in death they are rotting bones. The rotten bones are

the same—who can tell they were different? So go for the present life—

where is the leisure to consider what happens after death?”

4

Yang Zhu said, “Bo Yi was not without desire, he was extreme in
purism, which left him to starve to death. Liu Xiahui was not without
emotion, he was extreme in chastity, which left him with few descendants.
Such are the mistaken virtues of purism and chastity.”

Yang Zhu said, “Yuan Xian was impoverished in Lu, while Zigeng
grew rich in Wei. Yuan Xian’s poverty shortened his life, while Zigeng’s
wealth compromised his health.”

“Then neither poverty nor wealth is good. So wherein lies the
good?”

“Good is in enjoying life, good is in avoiding stress. So those who
are good at enjoying life don’t go broke, while those who are good at

avoiding stress don’t get rich.”

5
Yang Zhu said, “There is an ancient saying, Compassion in life,
abandonment in death. This saying is perfect. The way of compassion is

not merely emotion; those who toil can be put at ease, the starving can be

fed, those suffering from the cold can be kept warm, those in straits can be
fulfilled.

“The way of abandonment does not mean not mourning; it means
not interring the dead with jewelry, not dressing in ornate brocade, not
providing sacrificial animals, not setting out funerary implements.

“Yan Pingzhong asked Guan Yiwu about keeping healthy. Guan
Yiwu said, ‘Just do as you like, without inhibition or restraint.’

“Yan Pingzhong asked, ‘What are the particulars?’ Guan Yiwu said,
‘Go ahead and listen to what your ears want to hear, look at what your eyes
want to see, smell what your nose wants to smell, say what you want to say,
make your body comfortable, and do as you will.

‘Now then, what the ears want to hear is music; if they can’t get to
listen to it, that is called inhibiting hearing. What the eyes want to see is
beauty; if they can’t get to see it, that is called inhibiting vision. What the
nose wants to smell is fragrance; if it can’t get to smell it, that 1s called
inhibiting the sense of smell. What the mouth wants to express is
judgment; if it can’t, that is called inhibiting the intellect. What the body
wants for comfort is good food and clothing; if it can’t get them, that is
called inhibiting ease. What the will wants to do is be free; if it cannot, that

is called inhibiting nature.

“These inhibitions are causes of destruction. Getting rid of causes
of destruction and happily awaiting death is what I call keeping healthy,
even if for a day, a month, a year, or a decade. Mired in these causes of
destruction, bound up in them without relief, even if you live a long time
sorrowfully, be it a century, a millennium, even ten thousand years, that’s
not what I would call keeping healthy.’

“Guan Yiwu said, ‘Now I’ve told you about keeping healthy; what
about sending off the dead?’

“Yan Pingzhong said, ‘Sending off the dead is stmple—what is there
to tell?’

“Guan Yiwu said, ‘I’d sure like to hear about it.’

“Pingzhong said, ‘Once a body’s dead, how could it retain a self?
You may burn it, or sink it, or bury it. You can cover it with brushwood and
leave it in a ditch, or you can dress it in formal wear and inter it in a crypt.
It’s all a matter of circumstance.’

“Guan Yiwu turned to Bao Shu and Huangzi and said, ‘We two have

presented the paths of life and death.’”

6
When Zichan was prime minister of Zheng, he administered the

state single-handedly. In three years the good submitted to his influence

while the bad feared his prohibitions. The state of Zheng was thus orderly,
and other feudal lords dreaded it.

Zichan had an elder brother named Gongsun Chao, and a younger
brother named Gongsun Mu. Chao was fond of wine, while Mu was fond
of women. Chao had a thousand bottles of wine in his house, and a
mountain of yeast; one could smell the lees a hundred paces away. When
he was drunk, he didn’t know the state of the world, the regrets of human
reason, the existence of his house, the affinities of his relatives, or the joy
and sorrow of life and death. Even if there were flood and fire and armed
combat going on right in front of him he wouldn’t know it.

As for Mu, in his back yard were several dozen rooms in a row, all
filled with pretty girls of his choosing. When he was indulging in sex, he’d
shut out his family and friends, cut off social relations, and escape to his
back yard, where he’d spend night and day, unsatisfied if he had to emerge
even once in three months. If there were pretty virgins in the neighborhood,
he’d always try to bribe them to come, or seek them through go-betweens,
not giving up till he got them.

Zichan worried about his brothers day and night. He went privately
to Deng Xi to come up with a plan, saying, “I have heard that one governs
oneself to influence the family, and governs the family to influence the

state. This saying goes from the near to the remote. I have made the state

orderly, but my family is disorderly—is this backwards? How can I help
my brothers? Please tell me!”

Deng Xi said, “I’ve been wondering for a long time but didn’t dare
be the first to speak. Why don’t you discipline them in a timely fashion,
teach them the importance of nature and life, and induce them to respect
courtesy and duty.”

Zichan took Deng X1’s advice and visited his brothers in his free
time, telling them, “What makes humans superior to animals is reason, and
what reason calls for is courtesy and duty. When courtesy and duty are
fulfilled, then honor and status arrive. If you are stirred by what touches
your feelings and become addicted to indulging desires, then nation and life
are in peril. If you take my advice, you’ll repent in the morning and then be
drawing salaries the same night.”

Chao and Mu said, “We’ve known this for a long time, and made
our choice long ago. Do you suppose we need you to tell us? Life is hard
to come by, while death occurs easily. Who would think of waiting for
death that occurs easily with a life that was hard to come by? You want to
revere manners and duty to impress people, and overcome feelings and
nature to acquire a reputation. We’d prefer death to that! We want to enjoy

life to the full, so we only worry about being too full to eat or being too

tired for sex; we have no time to worry about getting a bad reputation or the
precariousness of nature and life.

“Now because your administration of the state can impress people,
you want to disturb our minds with rhetoric and excite our ambitions with
prosperity and pay. Is that not pitifully ignoble?

“We'd like to analyze this for you. Those who skillfully govern the
external do not necessarily succeed in governing others, but they personally
suffer along with them. Those who skillfully govern the internal do not
necessarily let others run wild, but are naturally at ease with them. The way
you govern the external, your laws may be effective for a while in one state,
but they still don’t suit people’s minds; the way we govern the internal
could be extended through the world, and government would cease. We’ve
always wanted to teach you this art; now instead you would teach us the
other method.”

Zichan was at a loss for a reply. The next day he related this to
Deng Xi. Deng Xi said, “You’ve been living with real people without even
knowing it! Who says you’re wise? The peace reigning in the state of

Zheng is a coincidence; it is not your achievement!”

Duanmu Shu of Wei was a descendant of Zigeng. He lived off the
wealth of his ancestors and had a huge hoard of gold at home. Because he
didn’t have to work for a living, he did as he pleased. He did everything
people want to do, enjoyed everything people wish to enjoy. His estate,
with its pavilions and gazebos, gardens and ponds, his diet, transportation,
and apparel, his singers, musicians, and concubines, were comparable to
those of the lords of Qi and Chu. When it came to what his senses wished
to enjoy, what his ears wanted to listen to, what his eyes wanted to look at,
what his palate wanted to taste, he would have it delivered, even if it were
from abroad and not a native product, just as if it were a local item. When
he went traveling, he’d go anywhere, even over difficult terrain of
mountains and rivers, however far the distance, just as someone else might
take a short walk. The guests at his house would number in the hundreds
on any given day; the fires in his kitchen were always going, song and
music never ceased in his parlor. What was left after providing for them, he
first distributed among his clan; what the clan had left over he’d then
distribute in the town and local villages; and what the town and local
villages had left over he’d distribute throughout the state.

When he reached the age of sixty and his vigor was on the decline,
he forsook his household affairs and gave away all his chattels, his

valuables, vehicles and wardrobe, and his maids. Everything was gone in a

year, with nothing left for his heirs. When he fell ill, he had no savings for
medicine; then when he died, there was no money to bury him. People
throughout the state who had been beneficiaries of his generosity got
together and raised funds to bury him, and restored his heirs’ property.
When Qin Guli heard of this, he said, “Duanwu Shu was a madman;
he disgraced his ancestry.” When Duangan Sheng heard this, he said,
“Duanmu Shu was an accomplished man; his virtue surpasses his ancestry.
His conduct and his deeds were startling to the common mind, but
acceptable to true reason. Most of the gentlemen of Wei pride themselves
on ritualistic doctrine, which is certainly not sufficient for understanding

this man’s mind.”

8

Meng Sunyang asked Yang Zhu, “Suppose someone values life and
takes care of his body; can he hope to avoid death that way?”

“In principle, there is no one who does not die.”

“Can one hope for long life?”

“In principle no one lives forever. Life cannot be preserved by
valuing it, the body cannot be enhanced by caring for it. And what’s the
point of prolonging life anyway? The likes and dislikes of the five senses

are the same past and present; physical safety and danger are the same past

and present; the pains and pleasures of worldly affairs are the same past and
present; change, order, and disorder are the same past and present. You’ve
already heard this, you’ve already seen this, you’ve already been through
this—even a hundred years is too long, to say nothing of the misery of
perpetual life!”

Meng Sunyang said, “If so, then an early death is better than long
life; so you’d get your wish by treading on spears and swords, plunging into
boiling water and fire.”

Master Yang said, “That is not so. Since you’re alive, let go and let
it be; fulfill your desires until you die. When you’re going to die, let go and
let it be; go with it all the way, to release in extinction. Letting go of
everything, letting it all be, in the meantime why be anxious about what

happens sooner or later?”

9
Yang Zhu said, “Bocheng Zigao would not help anyone even if it
only took a hair; he abandoned his state and retired to farm in obscurity.
The great Yu wouldn’t use his whole body for his own benefit; he became
palsied on one side. People of old wouldn’t give away a single hair to

benefit the world, and wouldn’t take the whole world even if it was offered;

if no one sacrificed a single hair, and no one tried to profit the world, the
world would be at peace.”

Mr. Qiu asked Yang Zhu, “If you could save the world by sacrificing
a single hair of your body, would you do it?”

Mr. Yang said, “The world can certainly not be saved by one hair.”

Mr. Qiu said, “If it could be saved, would you do it?”

Mr. Yang did not answer.

Mr. Qiu went out and talked to Meng Sunyang. Meng Sunyang
said, “You didn’t understand the master’s intention. Let me try to tell you.
If you could obtain ten thousand pieces of gold at the cost of injuring your
skin, would you do it?”

“I would.”

Meng Sunyang said, “If you could get a whole county by cutting off
one of your limbs, would you do it?”

Mr. Qiu remained silent. There was a pause. Meng Sunyang said,
“A hair is slighter than skin, skin is slighter than a limb; that much is clear.
However, individual hairs mount up to skin, while the skin mounts up to a
limb. Since a hair is a ten-thousandth of the whole body, how can you treat
it lightly?”

Mr. Qiu said, “I can’t answer you. But if we question Lao Dan and

Guan Yi with your words, then what you say is right; if we question Great

Yu and Mo Di with my words, then what I say is right.”
Meng Sunyang then turned to his disciples and talked about

something else.

10

Yang Zhu said, “Everyone admires Shun, Yu, the Duke of Zhou, and
Confucius, while everyone detests Jie and Zhou. Yet Shun plowed fields
north of the river, and made pottery at Thunder Marsh. He never got a
moment’s rest, and never had rich food. He was not loved by his parents,
and he was not treated by his siblings as one of the family. When he was
thirty years old he got married without telling his parents. When Yao
abdicated the throne to him, he was already old and his intellect was already
deteriorating. His own son was incompetent, so he abdicated the throne to
Yu. He had worries all his life. He was one of the most miserable people
on earth.

“Yu’s father worked on flood control, but his project was not
completed, and he was executed at Feather Mountain. Yu took up the
project after him, in the employ of his enemy, thoroughly absorbed in the
earthworks. When his children were born, he didn’t even name them; when
he passed by his house, he didn’t even go in. His body became palsied on

one side, and his hands and feet were calloused. When Shun abdicated the

throne to him, he kept his residence humble but beautified his ritual hat. He
had worries all his life; he was one of the most troubled people in the world.

“When King Wu died, King Cheng was still young, so the Duke of
Zhou took charge of administration of the land. The Duke of Shao was
dissatisfied, and sowed criticism throughout the states. The Duke of Zhou
lived in the east for three years; he executed his older brother and exiled his
younger brother, barely surviving himself. He had worries all his life; he
was one of the most imperiled and threatened people in the world.

“Confucius explained the path of emperors and kings, and
responded to the invitations of lords of his time. Yet a tree was felled in an
attempt to crush him in Song, he had to disappear from Wei, he was arrested
in Shangzhou and surrounded between Chen and Cai, he was constrained
by the Li clan, and insulted by Yang Hu. He had worries all his life; he was
one of the most harried people on earth.

“In sum, those four sages never had a day’s enjoyment all their
lives, but after they died they’ve been famous for myriad generations. So
reputation is not obtained by reality. Even if you praised them they
wouldn’t know, and even if you rewarded them they wouldn’t know, no
different from tree stumps.

“Jie lived on wealth accumulated over generations and occupied the

throne with cunning capable of keeping off subordinates and threat enough

to make the land tremble. He indulged in pleasures of the senses and did
whatever he willed. Merry all his life, he was one of the most indulgent
men on earth.

“Zhou also lived on wealth accumulated over generations and
occupied the throne. His authority was exerted everywhere, none did not
follow his will. He indulged his passions in an enormous palace, giving
free rein to his lusts all night long, not troubling himself with courtesy and
justice. He lived merrily until his execution; he was one of the greatest
libertines in the world.

“These two villains had the pleasure of indulging their desires while
alive, but after death they were saddled with reputations for ignorance and
brutality. So the reality is not given by the reputation. Even if you
criticized them they wouldn’t know; even if you censured them they
wouldn’t know; how are they any different from tree stumps?

“Though the four sages are objects of admiration, they suffered to
the end, and all finally died, just the same. While the two villains are
objects of contempt, they had fun to the end, and they finally died too, just

the same.”

11

Yang Zhu saw the King of Liang and talked about governing the
land like operating it in the palm of his hand. The King of Liang said, “You
have one wife and one concubine, and still you can’t keep order; you’ve
barely half an acre of garden and still you can’t keep it weeded. So how
can you speak of governing the land like operating it in the palm of one’s
hand!”

Yang Zhu said, “Have you ever seen a shepherd? Let a boy follow a
flock of a hundred sheep with a cane; when he wants to go east they go east,
when he wants to go west they go west. Now suppose Yao was leading a
single sheep, with Shun following up carrying a cane—they wouldn’t be
able to move forward.

“Furthermore, I have heard that a fish that could swallow a boat
does not swim in a rivulet; wild swans fly on high and do not gather on mud
puddles. Why? Because their aim is in the distance. Classical music
cannot follow complicated dance, because its melody is too slow. This is
what is meant by the saying that one who is going to govern the great does
not govern the small, and one who accomplishes great works does not do

little things.”

12

Yang Zhu said, “The events of high antiquity have passed away—
who remembers them? The affairs of the Three August Ones are as much
lost as extant, the affairs of the Five Emperors are as much dream as
memory, the affairs of the Three Kings are as obscure as they are evident;
not one of a million is known. The affairs of a lifetime may sometimes be
seen or heard, but not one of ten thousand is known.

“There is no telling how many years have passed from high
antiquity to the present day, but in the three hundred thousand years since
Fu Xi, wisdom and folly, good and bad, success and failure, right and
wrong, have all passed away, sooner or later. To be so concerned with the
blame and praise of one time as to torment mind and body, this in the
interest of a reputation centuries after your death, can hardly benefit dry

bones. What fun is life then?”

13
Yang Zhu said, “Humans resemble the pairing of sky and earth, and
have the nature of the five constants in their hearts; they are the most
conscious of living creatures.
‘Humans’ nails and teeth are not sufficient to provide protection and
defense, their skin does not provide adequate resistance by itself, their

mobility does not sufficiently enable them to pursue advantage and escape

harm. They have no fur or feathers to fend off cold and heart, and they
need to rely on material things for their subsistence. They rely on
intelligence rather than strength.

“For what is valuable about intelligence is its value in preserving
ourselves; what is mean about strength is the meanness of interfering with
things. Nevertheless, this body is not our possession. So long as we’re
alive, we cannot but complete it. Things are not our own possessions either,
but since they exist we can’t get away from them. The body is certainly the
basis of life, and things are the basis of subsistence, but though we complete
ourselves we cannot possess our bodies, and though we cannot do without
things we cannot possess those things.

“To be possessive about your body, to be possessive about your
things, is to arbitrarily be selfish about a body that belongs to the world, to
arbitrarily privatize things that belong to the world. Yet it seems only sages
can refrain from arbitrarily privatizing bodies belonging to the world and
things belonging to the world. Only perfect people can be impartial toward
bodies belonging to the world and things belonging to the world. This is

what is called reaching the ultimate.”

14

Yang Zhu said, “The reasons people cannot rest are four: striving
for longevity, striving for fame, striving for status, and striving for money.
With these four concerns, they fear ghosts, fear people, fear authority, and
fear punishment. They are called unnatural people. They can be killed, or
they can be granted life, because control of their fate is external.

“If you don’t defy destiny, why wish for long life? If you don’t care
about respect, why wish for fame? If you don’t want power, why wish for
status? If you don’t crave wealth, why wish for money? Those like this are
called natural people; they have no adversaries in the world, as control of
their destiny is within.

“So there is a saying that if people didn’t marry or serve in office,
their sensual desires would be half gone; if people didn’t eat or wear
clothes, government would cease. A proverb of Zhou says that a farmer can
be killed by inactivity. Going out early in the morning and coming in late at
night, be considers it natural and normal; eating beans and greens, he thinks
they’re the finest dining. His skin and flesh are rough and thick, his sinews
and joints are tight. Now put him in soft blankets and silk curtains, feed
him premium rice and meat and fragrant citrus fruits, and he would be
depressed and uncomfortable, with his inner irritation producing sickness.
On the other hand, if the lords of Shang and Lu had the same amount of

tillage as a farmer, they’d be worn out within an hour. So what country folk

consider comfortable, what country folk consider fine, they think is
unsurpassed in all the world.

“In olden times there was a farmer in the state of Song who always
wore hemp clothes. He barely made it through the winters, but when spring
came and he went to work he warmed himself in the sun. He had no idea
there were big houses with warm rooms in the world, or quilted clothing or
furs. He turned to his wife and said, ‘No one knows the warmth of the sun
on our backs! If we present it to our lord, we’ ll get a valuable reward.’

“A wealthy man of the locale said to him, ‘In ancient times there
was a man who liked broad beans, sesame stalk, and mugwort. He praised
them to the local gentry, who then obtained them and tried them, hurting
their mouths and upsetting their stomachs. They all scorned him and

despised him, so that man was very regretful. You are like this.’”

15
Yang Zhu said, “A big house, fine clothing, rich food, and a
beautiful woman—f one has these four, what else is there to seek? Those
who have these yet still seek something else are insatiable. The insatiable
are parasites of yin and yang: their loyalty is inadequate to give security to
their sovereigns, it is only enough to endanger themselves; their justice is

inadequate to benefit people, it is only enough to injure life.

“If security is given to rulers without loyalty, the name of loyalty
disappears. If people are profited without justice, the name of justice
disappears. When sovereign and subjects are all secure, and others and self
are both benefited, this is the ancient Way.

“Master Yu said, ‘Those who are detached from reputation have no
worries.’ Master Lao said, ‘Reputation is a guest of reality.’ Yet lots of
people seek reputations ceaselessly; so is it actually impossible to detach
from reputation, is reputation not to be considered a guest? Nowadays you
are respected and prosperous if you have a reputation, lowly and despised if
you have no reputation. When you’re respected and prosperous you’re
comfortable and happy; when you’re lowly and despised, you’re troubled
and miserable. Trouble and misery offend nature, whereas comfort and
happiness suit nature. These are what reality depends on, so how can you
detach from reputation or consider reputation adventitious? Only bad men
guard reputation to the detriment of reality. If you guard reputation to the
detriment of reality, you will worry about being unable to avoid danger and
destruction. Do you think that lies somewhere within the range of mere

ease or misery?”

VIII. The Tally of the Teaching
1

Master Lie studied with Lin, Master of Pot Hill. Lin said, “If you
know how to hold back, we can talk about self-preservation.”

Lie said, “Let’s hear about holding back.”

Lin said, “Look at your shadow and you’ll know it.”

Lie looked at this shadow and watched it. When he bent over, his
shadow bent; and when he straightened up, his shadow was straight. So
crookedness and straightness go along with the body, and are not in the
shadow; constriction and expansion are up to others and not in oneself.

This is called being in the forefront by holding back.

2
The Keeper of the Pass said to Master Lie, “When a sound is
beautiful, the echo is beautiful; when a sound is ugly, the echo is ugly.
When the body is tall, the shadow is tall; when the body is short, the
shadow is short. Reputation is an echo, stature is a shadow. Therefore it is
said, ‘Be careful of your speech, and there will be those who agree with

you; be careful of your behavior, and there will be those who accord with

you.’ This is why sages observe exits to know entries, observe goings to
know comings; this is the principle enabling their foreknowledge.
“Measure is up to oneself, evaluation is up to others. If others love
us, we will love them; if others despise us, we will despise them. Tang and
Wu loved everyone, so they reigned as kings; Jie and Zhou despised
everyone, so they perished. This is how they were evaluated. If evaluation
and measure are both clear and yet you do not follow, that is like not using
the door to exit, not following the road to travel. If you try to seek to
benefit this way, won’t it be hard? I’ve examined the virtues of Shennong
and You Yan, evaluated the books of Yu, Xia, Shang, and Zhou, and
weighed the words of the doctors of law and the savants; the reasons for

their rise and fall were invariably related to this Way.”

3
Yan Hui said, “The purpose of inquiring after the Way is for
prosperity. Now if I acquire pearls, that’s prosperity too—why do I need
the Way?”
Master Lie said, “Jie and Zhou perished because they only valued
profit and disregarded the Way. This is a good opportunity, as I haven’t told
you this yet. People with no sense of duty only consume, that’s all—they

are chickens and dogs. Those who consume by force and contend

arrogantly, with the victors exerting control, are raptors and beasts. And yet
they want people to honor them—that’s impossible. If people do not

respect you, danger and disgrace will come upon you.”

4

Master Lie practiced archery until he could hit the bull’s-eye. He
told the Keeper of the Pass. The Keeper said, “Do you know how it is you
hit the mark?”

He answered, “I don’t know.”

The Keeper of the Pass said, “That won’t do.”

So Lie withdrew to practice. After three years he again reported to
the Keeper of the Pass. The Keeper of the Pass said, “Do you know how it
is that you hit the mark?”

“Now I know,” he replied.

“That will do,” said the Keeper of the Pass. “Keep it and don’t lose
it. Not only archery, but everything you do for the nation and yourself is
also like this. Therefore sages do not examine survival and destruction,

they examine the reasons for them.”

Master Lie said, “The robust are haughty, the strong are assertive.
You can’t talk to them about the Way. If you talk of the Way to people
whose hair is not yet graying, they don’t get it, much less put it into
practice. So if you assert yourself, no one will advise you, and if no one
advises you, you'll be alone, without assistance.

“The wise delegate responsibilities to others, so they don’t
degenerate even in old age, and they’re not confused even when at the end
of their wits. So the difficulty of governing a country is in recognizing the

wise, not in considering oneself wise.”

6

A man of Song once replicated a mulberry leaf in jade for his lord.
It took three years to complete. The sharpness and thinness, the stem and
stalk, the fuzz and the luster, were such that if it were mixed with real
mulberry leaves it could not be distinguished. As a result, this man was
patronized by the state of Song for his skill.

When Master Lie heard of this, he said, “If it took the sky and earth
three years to make a single leaf, there wouldn’t be much foliage! So sages

rely on natural evolution, not cunning artifice.”

Master Lie was impoverished, and had the look of hunger on his
face. A visitor told of this to [the prime minister of] Zheng, Ziyang, saying,
“Lie Yukou is a man who has mastered the Way. If he has fallen into
poverty living in your state, doesn’t that mean you consider him
unworthy?”

So Zheng’s Ziyang had an officer send Lie some grain. When
Master Lie came out and saw the emissary, he bowed twice and refused.
The emissary left.

Master Lie went back inside. His wife looked at him and said
indignantly, “I’ve heard that the wives and children of masters of the Way
all have it easy. Now we’re starving, yet when the lord sends you food you
refuse it. Surely this isn’t fate, 1s it?”

Master Lie laughed and told her, “The lord doesn’t know me
personally. If he sent me grain because of what someone else said, then he
could also condemn me because of what someone else said. Therefore I
don’t accept.”

As it turned out, people actually opposed Ziyang and assassinated

him.

Mr. Shi of Lu had two sons, one of whom was fond of study, the
other fond of arms. The studious one offered his arts to the lord of Qi. The
lord of Qi hired him to tutor his princes. The militarist went to Chu and
offered his science to the lord of Chu. The lord of Chu was pleased with
him, and made him a military director. Their salaries enriched their family,
their ranks brought glory for their parents.

Mr. Shi’s neighbor Mr. Meng also had two sons, who also pursued
the same professions, but were impoverished. Envying what the Shi’s had,
they inquired how to get ahead. The two sons of Mr. Shi told them the
facts.

One of Mr. Meng’s son’s went to Qin to put his arts at the service of
the king of Qin. The king of Qin said, “At present the lords are fighting
each other, so their only concerns are armaments and food. If I used
humaneness and justice to rule my state, this would be a way to
destruction.” So he had him castrated and banished.

The other son went to Wei, where he sought to put his science at the
service of the lord of Wei. The lord of Wei said, “Mine is a weak state, and
it is hemmed in between large states. I render service to larger states, while
aiding smaller states—this is the way to security. If I rely on military

strategy, I can expect to be annihilated. Now if I send you back in one

piece, you may go to another state and cause me some serious trouble.” So
he had his feet cut off and sent him back to Lu.

Once they were back, Mr. Meng’s sons went with him to Mr. Shi,
beating their breasts and complaining. Mr. Shi said, “Those whose timing
is right flourish, while those whose timing is off perish. Your pursuits are
the same as ours, but your results were different from ours. This was
because your timing was off, not because your practices were mistaken.

“No principle in the world is always right, and no thing is always
wrong. What was used yesterday may be rejected today, what is rejected
now may be used later on. This use or disuse has no fixed right or wrong.
To avail yourself of opportunities at just the right time, responding to events
without being set in your ways, is in the domain of wisdom. If your
wisdom is insufficient, even if you are as learned as Confucius and as
skilled as Lu Shang, you’ll come to an impasse wherever you go.”

Mr. Meng and his sons, losing their angry looks, said, “We get it—

say no more!”

9
Duke Wen of Jin rallied the feudal lords to attack Wei. Gongzi Chu
looked up at the sky and laughed. The Duke asked him why he laughed.

He said, “I’m laughing at how a neighbor was accompanying his wife to his

in-laws’ house when he saw a woman tending mulberries on the way. He
was pleased and spoke to her. But then when he looked back at his wife,
someone else was flirting with her too! I’m laughing to myself over this.”
The Duke understood what he was saying and gave up, withdrawing
his army to return. Before they got back, there were attackers on his own

northern border.

10

The state of Jin was plagued by thievery. There was someone
named Xi Yong who could read thieves’ faces, apprehending their reality by
examining the space between their eyebrows and eyelashes. The lord of Jin
had him look for thieves, and he never missed even one in a hundred or a
thousand. Delighted, the Duke of Jin told Zhao Wenzi, “I’ve found one
man through whom all the thievery in the state is being eliminated. What’s
the need of many?”

Wenzi said, “My lord, you’re relying on surveillance to catch
thieves. But thievery is not ended, and Xi Yong will surely not die a natural
death.”

Before long a bunch of thieves plotted to kill Xi Yong as the one

thwarting them. And they did in fact gang up to murder him.

When the Duke of Jin heard of this he was shocked. He called
Wenzi and told him, “It turned out just as you said—X1 Yong is dead! So
how should I catch thieves?”

Wenzi said, “A proverb of Zhou says that one perceptive enough to
sight fish in a deep pond is unlucky, and one clever enough to figure out
secrets is doomed. Now if you want to eliminate thievery, nothing
compares to promotion and appointment of the virtuous. Let education be
clear above, so its influence is effective below, and the people will have a
sense of shame. Then what thievery would there be?”

So he employed Sui Hui to manage the government, and all the

thieves fled to Qin.

11
As Confucius was returning from Wei to Lu, he stopped his vehicle
on a bridge over a river and gazed into it. There was a waterfall two
hundred and fifty feet high, and a whirlpool of thirty miles. Fish and turtles
couldn’t swim it, sea-turtles and crocodiles couldn’t live in it. There was a
man who was going to ford it; Confucius sent someone along the shore to
stop him, saying, “This waterfall is two hundred and fifty feet high, and the

whirlpool is thirty miles. Don’t you think it will be hard to cross?”

But the man paid no attention. He actually crossed and came out on
the other side. Confucius asked him, “Is this skill? Do you have Taoist
art? How were you able to go in and get out?”

The man said, “First I go in with dedication and trust; then I also get
out by dedication and trust. Dedication and trust put my body on the
current, and I don’t presume to act on my own, so in this way I am able to
go in and also get out.”

Confucius said to his disciples, “Make a note of this, lads! Even
water can be befriended by dedication, faith, and personal sincerity—how

much more so people!”

12

The Duke of Bai asked Confucius, “Can one speak discreetly to
another?”

Confucius did not reply.

The Duke of Bai asked, “What if one tossed a stone in water?”

Confucius said, “A good swimmer could retrieve it.”

“What if water is poured into water?”

Confucius said, “Where rivers join, someone with a sensitive palate

could still distinguish their water by taste.”

The Duke of Bai said, “So it’s impossible to speak discreetly to
another?”

Confucius said, “How is it impossible? But only one who knows
what words mean can do so. One who knows what words mean does not
speak with words. Those who are after fish get wet, those in pursuit of
beasts run, but not because they like to. Therefore the supreme speech is
unspoken, the supreme act is uncontrived. What shallow knowledge
contends over is trivia.”

The Duke of Bai didn’t get it, and wound up dead in his bath house.

13

Zhao Xiangzi had Xinzhi Muzi attack the Di people. He overcame
them and took two cities. He sent a messenger back to report this. Xiangzi,
who was just then dining, looked worried. Those around him said, “Two
cities conquered in one day is something people would celebrate, but now
you look worried—why?”

Xiangzi said, “A flood tide lasts no more than three days, a storm
doesn’t last all day, high noon doesn’t last a moment. Now the Zhao clan
has no history of benevolent conduct, so if two cities fall to us in one day,

{??

destruction may overcome us too

When Confucius heard of this he said, “The Zhao clan will

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flourish!” That is, anxiety is a means of creating success, while celebration
is ameans of bringing about destruction. Victory is not the difficult thing—
what is hard is to keep it. This is the way a wise ruler maintains supremacy,
so that fortune extends to future generations. Qi, Chu, Wu, and Yue all
were victorious at some point, but eventually got destroyed; they never
succeeded in maintaining supremacy.

Only rulers who have the Way can maintain supremacy. Confucius
was strong enough to lift the bolt on a state border gate, yet he was
unwilling to be famed for strength. Mozi contrived defenses and offenses
that outdid [the archetypical engineer] Gongshu Ban, but he was unwilling

to be famed for military science. So those who are good at maintaining

superiority consider strength to be weakness.

14
In Song there were people who had avidly practiced humanity and
justice for three generations. For no reason a black cow belonging to the
family gave birth to a white calf, and they asked Confucius about it.
Confucius said, “This is an auspicious omen. Offer it to God.”
In a year, the father of the house had gone blind for no reason, and

that cow had produced another white calf. The father had his son query

Confucius again. His son said, “You asked about this before and lost your
eyesight; why ask again?”

The father said, “The words of sages are illogical at first but later
make sense. The matter is not yet resolved, so ask him again.”

His son then questioned Confucius again. Confucius said, “It’s an
auspicious omen,” and again advised him to sacrifice it. The son went
home and conveyed these directions. In a year, the son too had gone blind
for no reason.

Subsequently Chu attacked Song and besieged the capital city. The
inhabitants sold their children to eat, split bones of corpses and cooked
them. All the able-bodied climbed the walls to fight, and more than half of
them died. This father and son, however, having a disability, were both
exempted. Then when the siege was lifted, they both recovered from their

affliction.

15
There was an itinerant from Song who sought employment with
Song Yuan as an entertainer. Song Yuan invited him and had him show his
skills. Fixing stilts to his legs twice again as tall as he, he gamboled about
on them, juggling seven swords all the while, keeping five of the swords in

the air at all times.

Lord Yuan was amazed, and immediately rewarded him with gold
and silk.

Another itinerant who could do acrobatics too heard about this and
also went to offer to perform for Lord Yuan. Enraged, Lord Yuan said,
“There was someone with unusual skills who performed for me before. His
skills were useless, but it so happened I was entertained, and therefore I
gave him gold and silk. Now this fellow must have heard about this and
come forward hoping to get a reward from me too.” He had him arrested

and was going to have him executed, but then let him go after a month.

16

Duke Mu of Qin said to [his horse expert] Bolo, “You’re getting old
—1is there anyone in your family who can be sent to look for horses?”

Bolo replied, “You can tell a good horse by its appearance and
physique, but a world-class horse seems to vanish, to disappear—one like
this stirs no dust and leaves no tracks. My children are all of lesser ability
—they can tell a good horse, but they can’t tell a world-class horse.

“There’s someone I’ve hauled loads and collected firewood with, a
certain Jiufeng Gao, who is in no way inferior to me when it comes to

horses. Please see him.”

Duke Mu met him and sent him on a mission to search for a horse.
He came back after three months and reported, “I’ve found one. It’s at
Sand Hill.”

Duke Mu asked, “What kind of horse is it?”

“A tawny mare,” he replied.

When people were sent to fetch it, the horse turned out to be a black
stallion. Duke Mu was displeased. He summoned Bolo and said, “What a
failure, this fellow you had me send searching for a horse! He can’t even
tell what color it is, or what gender—how can he be knowledgeable about
horses?”

Bolo sighed and said, “So it has come to this? This is why he is
countless millions of times better than I. What Gao observes is natural
potential—he gets the fine and forgets the coarse; he focuses on the inside
and forgets the outside. He sees what he has to see, and doesn’t see what he
doesn’t have to see. He looks at what he has to look at, and ignores what he
doesn’t have to look at. The way Gao judges horses has something more
important than horses.”

When the horse arrived, it did turn out to be a world-class horse.

17

King Zhuang of Chu asked Zhan He, “How is a state to be
governed?”

Zhan He said, “I understand how to govern oneself, but I don’t
understand how to govern a state.”

The King said, “I am in charge of the ancestral temple and the earth
and grain shrines, and wish to learn how to preserve them.”

Zhan He said, “I’ve never heard of anyone who was personally
orderly but whose state was in chaos. And I’ve never heard of anyone who
was personally disorderly yet whose state was orderly. So the root is in the
individual; I dare not reply about the branches.”

The King of Chu said, “Good.”

18
The Elder of Fox Hill said to Sunshu Ao, “People have three
resentments—do you know them?”
Sunshu Ao said, “What do you mean?”
He replied, “Those of high status, people envy. Those in powerful
offices, rulers dislike. Those with rich salaries, resentment overtakes.”
Sunshu Ao said, “The higher my rank, the humbler my aspirations;

the more powerful my office, the more careful my attention; the richer my

salary, the more extensive my charities—can I escape the three resentments

this way?”

19

When Sunshu Ao fell ill and was about to die, he admonished his
son, “The king repeatedly tried to enfeoff me, but I wouldn’t accept. When
I die, the king will enfeoff you. Don’t accept land with rich soil! There is a
place between Chu and Yue called Dwarf Hill; its soil is not as good and its
reputation is bad. The people of Chu believe in ghosts, while the people of
Yue believe in curses. This is the only place you can keep forever.”

When Sunshu Ao died, the king did in fact enfeoff his son with fine
land. His son refused and asked for Dwarf Hill. This was granted, and

since then it has never been lost.

20
Niu Que was a great scholar from Shangdi. Traveling to Handan, he
was beset by robbers at Odd Sands River. They took all his clothes, his
luggage, and his carriage, so Niu went his way on foot. Seeing him so
nonchalant, the robbers went after him and asked him the reason. He said,
“A noble man does not let material needs harm what they support.” The

robbers exclaimed what a wise man he was, but then they said among

themselves, “With wisdom like that, if he meets the lord of Zhao, he’ll get
him to do something about us. That surely means trouble for us. We’d
better kill him.” So they chased him down and murdered him.

A man of Yan heard of this and gathered his family to warn them,
“If you run into robbers, don’t be like Niu Que of Shangdi!” Everyone took
a lesson.

Before long the man’s younger brother set off on a trip to Qin. As it
turned out, he encountered robbers along the way. Remembering his older
brother’s warning, he resisted the robbers stoutly. He was no match for
them, but yet he followed them meekly asking for his things. The robbers
said angrily, ““We were generous just to let you go, and yet you keep
following us! You’re going to leave an obvious trail! Since we’re robbers,
why would we be humane?” So they killed him, and murdered four or five

of his companions as well.

21
Mr. Yu was a wealthy man of Liang. His family business was
flourishing, and he had cash and silk beyond measure, money and goods
beyond reckoning. He had a party in an upper room overlooking the main
road, with music, wine, and gambling. Just as some mercenaries were

passing below, a gambler upstairs won twice in a row and laughed. At that

moment a kite in flight dropped its prey, a dead rat, and it landed on the
mercenaries. They said among themselves, “Mr. Yu has enjoyed prosperity
for a long time now, and he always has an attitude of contempt for others.
We have done nothing to offend him, yet here he insults us with a dead rat!
If we don’t respond, we’ll have no way to show the world we’re serious!
Let’s join forces, bring along our gangs, and we’ll wipe out his family and
associates.” Everyone agreed. The night of the appointed date, they
gathered their bands, massed their soldiers, and exterminated the whole

family.

22

There was a man of the East named Yuan Wingmu. He was going
somewhere when hunger overtook him on the road. A thief from Gufu
named Qin saw him and gave him something to eat.

After three mouthfuls, Yuan Xingmu was able to see. He asked,
“Who are you?”

“I am Qin, from Gufu.”

“Oh! Aren’t you a thief? How could you feed me? I’m duty-bound
not to eat your food!” Bracing himself with both hands on the ground, he
tried to vomit it up, but it wouldn’t come out, and he finally collapsed and

died, gacking.

The man from Gufu was a thief, but feeding is not theft. Just
because the man is a thief, to call feeding thievery and refuse to eat is to

confuse name and reality.

23

Zhu Lishu worked for Duke Ao of Ju, but he quit and went to live
by the sea because he thought he wasn’t being recognized. In summer he
fed on water chestnuts, in winter he ate tree chestnuts.

When Duke Ao of Ju had trouble, Zhu Lishu left his friends to go
sacrifice his life for him. His friends said, “You left because you thought
you weren’t being given due recognition, yet now you’re going to sacrifice
your life for him. This is making no distinction between being recognized
and not being recognized.”

Zhu Lishu said, “Not so. I left because I thought I wasn’t getting
recognition. Now if I die, that means he does not in fact acknowledge me.
I’m going to sacrifice my life for him to shame future rulers who don’t
acknowledge their ministers.”

Generally speaking, to sacrifice your life for someone who
acknowledges you but not for someone who doesn’t is the straightforward
way to go. Zhu Lishu may be said to be one who forgot himself on account

of resentment.

24
Yang Zhu said, “Those who make their output beneficial are
rewarded in return; harm comes to those from whom resentment proceeds.
What emerges from here and reverberates on the outside is simple sense, so

savants are careful about what they put out.”

25

A neighbor of Master Yang lost a sheep. Having mustered his
people, he also asked Master Yang for his servants to go after it.

Master Yang said, “Hey, you’ve only lost one sheep—why do you
need so many to go after it?”

The neighbor replied, “There are a lot of forks in the road.”

When they returned, Master Yang asked his neighbor, “Did you find
the sheep?”

“No, we lost it.”

“How could you lose it?”

“Because the forks in the road also had forks in them—we didn’t
know where to go, so we came back.”

A look of distress came over Master Yang’s face. He didn’t speak

for some time, and didn’t smile the rest of the day. His students wondered

about this and asked, “A sheep is an inexpensive animal, and it didn’t
belong to you anyway. So why have you stopped speaking and smiling?”

Master Yang didn’t answer, and his students didn’t get what he
intended. The disciple Meng Sunyang went off and told the Master of the
Mind Capital. Another day the Master of the Mind Capital and Meng
Sunyang went to Master Yang together and posed the following question:
“Once there were three brothers who traveled around Qi and Lu, studied
with the same teachers, and returned thoroughly versed in the principles of
humaneness and justice. Their father asked, ‘What is the path of
humaneness and justice?’ The eldest son said, ‘Humaneness and justice
would have us care for our selves more than our honor.’ The middle son
said, ‘Humaneness and justice would have us sacrifice our selves to be
honorable.’ The youngest one said, ‘Humaneness and justice would have us
be complete in both our selves and our honor.’ These three policies are
mutually contradictory, yet all of them come from Confucianism; who is
right, who is wrong?”

Master Yang said, “There was a man who lived by a river; used to
the water, he was a strong swimmer. He made his living running a ferry
boat, which yielded enough profit to feed a hundred people. Many people

came from afar to learn from him, but nearly half of them drowned. They

had come to learn to swim, not to learn to sink, but the gain and loss turned
out this way. Who do you think was right, and who was wrong?”

The Master of the Mind Capital left in silence. Meng Sunyang
pressed him, saying, “Why was your question so indirect, and the master’s
reply so odd? My perplexity is even worse.”

The Master of the Mind Capital said, “The sheep got lost on the
main road because of a multitude of byways; scholars waste their lives
because of a multitude of formulas. Studies may not be different or
disparate at the outset, but this 1s how different the outcomes can be. Only
returning to sameness and restoring unity can eliminate gain and loss.
You’ve been in the teacher’s school and studied the teacher’s way for a long

time, yet you don’t understand the teacher’s examples. What a pity!”

26
Yang Zhu’s younger brother Bu went out wearing white clothes. It
rained, so he removed his white clothing and changed into black clothing.
When he got home, his dog barked at him, failing to recognize him. Yang
Bu got angry and was going to beat the dog, but Yang Zhu said, “Don’t beat
it! You’re just the same. If your dog went out white and came back black,

wouldn’t you wonder?”

27
Yang Zhu said, “Doing good is not for honor, yet honor follows it.
Honor is not for profit, but profit takes to it. Profit is not for conflict, yet
conflict overtakes it. Therefore a noble man must be careful about doing

good.”

28

Once there was a man who claimed to know the way to immortality,
and the lord of Yan sent an emissary to learn it. He did not succeed, and the
man who’d made the claim died.

The lord of Yan was furious, and was going to have that emissary
executed. A favored minister admonished him, “People worry about
nothing so much as death, and one values nothing so much as life. If he lost
his own life, how could he have enabled you not to die?” So the lord didn’t
execute the emissary.

A certain Qizi also wanted to learn the method; when he heard that
the man claiming it had died, he beat his breast in bitter lament. Hearing of
this, Fuzi laughed and said, “What you want to study is immortality, yet
you’re still bitter now that the man has died. You don’t know how to

learn.”

Huzi said, “Fuzi’s statement is wrong. There are those who know
arts they cannot practice, and there are also those who can practice but have
no art. There was a man of Wei who was good at calculation and taught his
secret to his son on his deathbed. His son memorized his instructions but
couldn’t carry them out. Someone else asked him, and he told him what his
father had said. The inquirer made use of those instructions and practiced
that art, no different from the other man’s father. So why couldn’t someone

who died tell of the art of living?”

29

The people of Handan presented pigeons to Jianzi on New Year’s
Day. Jianzi was delighted and rewarded them richly. A guest asked him
why. Jianzi said, “Releasing living creatures on New Year’s Day
demonstrates benevolence.”

The guest said, “The people know you want to release them, so they
vie to catch them, and a lot of them die. If you want to let them live, it
would be better to prohibit the people from trapping them. If they’re caught
to be released, the benevolence does not compensate for the transgression.”

Jianzi said, “You’re right.”

30

Mr. Tian of Qi was performing a ceremony in his courtyard,
entertaining a thousand guests. In the course of the proceedings there were
those who offered up fish and geese. Observing this, Mr. Tian sighed and
said, “How generous Nature is to the people growing the five grains and
producing fish and fowl for their use!” The whole crowd of guests echoed
their agreement.

A twelve-year-old lad of the Bao family who was attending came
forward and said, “It is not as you say. Heaven and earth, myriad beings
and ourselves, are born together, of a kind. There are not higher or lower
species, it’s just that they dominate and devour each other depending on the
differences in magnitude of intelligence and strength. It is not that they are
born for each other’s purposes. If people take what they can eat and
consume it, does that mean Nature originally produced it for humans? If so,
mosquitoes bite skin, tigers and wolves eat flesh—wouldn’t that mean
Nature created humans for mosquitoes and created flesh for wolves and

tigers?”

31
There was a pauper of Qi who used to beg in the city market. At the
city market they were bothered by his frequency, and no one would give

him anything. Finally he went to the stables of the Tian clan and did chores

for the horse doctor to get something to eat. Townspeople teased him,
saying, “Isn’t it embarrassing to live off a horse doctor?”

The beggar said, “There’s nothing in the world more embarrassing
than begging. If I’m not embarrassed to beg, why should I be embarrassed

about a horse doctor?”

32
A man of Song was walking along the road when he found a tally
someone had lost. He returned home and hid it away. Privately counting

its notches, he told his neighbor, “I’m going to be rich!”

33
A man had a dead phoenix tree. His neighbor’s father said a dead
phoenix tree is unlucky, so the neighbor was scared into cutting it down.
Then the neighbor’s father asked for it, to use for firewood. The man was
displeased. He said, “My neighbor’s father got me to cut it down just
because he wanted firewood. He’s my neighbor, yet such a crooked

deceiver—how can that be alright?”

34

A man who lost his axe suspected his neighbor’s son—“Look at the
way he walks—he’s stolen the axe! The expression on his face—he’s
stolen the axe! The way he talks—he’s stolen the axe!” Every act, every
attitude, indicated that he’d stolen the axe.

One day the man found the axe as he was digging in the valley. The
next time he saw his neighbor’s son, he wasn’t acting like he’d stolen the

axe.

35

The Duke of Bai was contemplating rebellion. After court one day
he stood there with his riding crop upside down; the metal tip pierced his
chin, and blood flowed to the ground, yet he didn’t even notice.

A man of Zheng heard of this and said, “If he’ll forget his chin, what
won't he forget?”

When your attention is fixated, you may stumble on a stump or a
pothole, or bump your head on a tree, without even being aware of it

yourself.

36
In ancient times there was a man of Qi who wanted gold. One

morning he put on his coat and hat and went to town. Coming to a gold-

seller’s booth, he snatched the gold and left.

When the police arrested him, they asked, “With everybody there,
how could you take someone’s gold?”

He replied, “When I took the gold, I didn’t see the people, I only

saw the gold.”

Notes

I. Celestial Signs

l. Master Lie lived in the game preserve of Zheng for forty years
without anyone recognizing him.

Zhang Zhan |ca. 370 C.E.] commented: It’s not that he didn’t interact with
others, or didn’t converse with others. They didn’t know the extent of his

virtue, so it was the same as if they didn’t know him.

Jiang Yu [ca. mid-11" century C.E.] commented: Master Lie was a good
man of ancient times. With mystic penetration of minute subtleties, his
inner attainment was profound. Because he was unfathomable, he lived in
the game preserve of Zheng for forty years without anyone recognizing
him. There were a lot of savants there, so residence for forty years without
being recognized shows how deeply he concealed his capabilities. This is
what the Book of Change calls retreating into privacy.

The ruler, aristocrats, and grandees of the state looked upon him as one of
the peasants.

Zhang Zhan: It’s not that he secluded himself from people. This just
means there was no judging him, no trace of fixation in his behavior, so no

one could know him.

Jiang Yu: Those with qualities sufficient to rule a state and policies
adequate to take care of the people ought to strive to seek savants. Those
with sufficient intelligence to lead communities ought to be wise enough to
know people. If the ruler, aristocrats, and grandees looked upon him as one
of the ordinary folk, the reason for this is that he was too deep for them to
know.

During a famine, he was going to remove to Wei.

Zhang Zhan: Leaving your own house is called removing.

Jiang Yu: People who study Master Lie these days mistakenly think that
since he could ride the wind he didn’t eat the five grains but lived on a diet
of air and dew. They do not realize that once in the human world the
problems of human life are inevitable for all alike. Therefore the books
mentions this first to get students of later times to strive to seek the Way
rather than using abnormal practices to amaze ordinary folk. The chapter
The Tally of the Teaching also says Master Lie was emaciated, with the look
of starvation on his face.

His disciples said, “If you go with no prospect of returning, how will we
call with questions, and how will you teach? Haven t you heard the word of

Lin, Master of Pot Hill? ”

Zhang Zhang [hereafter ZZ]: Lin, Master of Pot Hill, was Master Lie’s

teacher.

Jiang Yu [hereafter JY]: Embodying openness and accommodation,
following a course of centered balance, inclusively covering myriad beings
—such was Lin, Master of Pot Hill. This is why he was Master Lie’s

teacher.

What does Pot-Hill have to say?

ZZ: As the four seasons proceed, a hundred things are born; what need
have they of words?

Elder Darkness

ZZ: Elder Darkness was an associate of Master Lie, who also studied with
Master Pot. Not saying he himself had been taught by Master Pot is Master
Lie’s humility.

JY: Master Lie’s teacher, Master Pot, looked at him and smiled; their minds
were in accord. As for the blind man Elder Darkness, he was older and
intellectually brilliant; it was out of pity that Master Pot couldn’t help
talking to him. Master Lie got to hear it standing by. Zhuangzi said, “To
know but not say is the way to go to heaven.” This was how Master Lie
related to Master Pot. Zhuangzi also said, “To know and say it is the way to
go to people.” This is why Master Pot spoke to the blind man Elder
Darkness.

There is that which is born and that which is unborn; there is that which

changes and that which does not change. The unborn gives birth to what is

born, the unchanging produces change. What produces birth cannot but
produce, what evolves change cannot but change.

ZZ: What is born is not born by ability to produce, what changes is not
changed by ability to change. This just refers to what cannot but produce
and evolve.

JY: The deities in heaven, the riches of the earth, the reason sages are
sages, the reason beings are beings—this is all summed up in the expression
birth and production. Therefore the chapter on celestial signs first clarifies
this.

Physical bodies as distinct entities never stop changing and
deteriorating; this is what it means to have birth and production. True
eternity unchanging, before cosmic evolution has begun, is considered
unborn and unproduced.

Fenced in by having been born, then changing day by day, how is it
possible to renew life? Belabored by changes, ultimately to end up in
annihilation, how is it possible to keep evolving?

What is born undergoes changes; how can the unborn have any
change? What changes ultimately passes away, but what does not change
never originates or passes away.

Life in all its profusion is a manifestation of the true mind; this is

the capacity to renew life. Change in all its complexity is produced by the

ineffable mind; this is the capacity to keep evolving.

Once there is birth, it is impossible not to be born; once there is
change, it is impossible not to change. Even heaven and earth in their
immensity, and the sun and moon in their brilliance are wholly contained
within the boundaries of birth and change. So there may be processes they
can’t stop themselves, or operations they can’t halt themselves; the changes
in the seasons and passing of the years have never ceased since time
immemorial, to say nothing of myriad things. If what produces cannot but
produce, then what produces birth cannot but produce birth; if what changes
cannot but change, then what evolves change cannot but evolve change too.

No one can find the beginning of the production of birth or the
process of change; producing and changing without any sense of limitation
is how heaven and earth contain myriad things without exhaustion, how the
Way contains heaven and earth without end.

Even so, what is unborn and unchanging cannot be named; the terms
mean there is manifestation but not limitation. Therefore there cannot be
something unborn and unchanging outside the born and the changing; the
subtlety of the unborn and unchanging is right within the born and
changing. Therefore it says that there is the born and the unborn, the
changing and the unchanging, in order to say that what is born is in reality

never produced, and what changes has really never changed, while the

reason for birth and change is not outside and not in the self; it is just
natural birth and natural change.

When you look at the first statement that there is the born and the
unborn, there is the changing and the unchanging, it has already exhausted
the principle, but as it is still necessary to clarify the logic of producing
birth and evolving change, in the end it is imperative to resolve this into
natural birth and natural change. If you harmonize with birth and change in
the midst of birth and change, then you are not controlled by birth and
change even though within them. So the birth of myriad things is all the
real substance of our mind, while the evolution of myriad things is all the
subtle function of our mind. This is what makes a sage a sage, and it is the
import of Master Lie’s lesson.

Therefore it is always producing, always changing.

ZZ: Whatever comes into existence can no longer be nonexistent.

What is always producing and always changing is never not producing,
never not changing.

ZZ: Generation and change are interdependent; existence and nonexistence
come and go. They are not separate in principle.

JY: What is being called that which is always producing and changing
refers to all things throughout all times; it is the supreme principle of

Creation. Observing it is one being, since it is born through a process of

change, it also dies through a process of change. The temporary massing of
energy is called birth, so it can’t live forever. The aging and death of the
body is change, so it can’t be a permanent change. That is because the
relation of Creation to all beings is that while they’re alive they never stop
changing, and when they die the change still goes on. Since there is
ongoing change, there is also unbroken regeneration. If there were the
slightest discontinuity between generation and change in a single thing in
Creation, then the principle of generation and change might come to an
end. It’s been said that beings’ birth and death are like the sun’s day and
night—when the sun comes out it’s day, when the sun sets it’s night—how
can the day be said to be born, or the night extinguished? This is what is
meant by always producing, always changing. The Old Master’s scripture
on the Way speaks of the eternal Way, the eternal name, eternal nonbeing,
and eternal being—if you speak of the Way without reaching the eternal,
that is not sufficient to merit the name of the gateway to all wonders.

yin and yang are thus, the four seasons are thus

ZZ: Yin and yang and the four seasons are things that change, and
everything in the realm of life follows this operation. The four seasons go
on without stopping, myriad things evolve unceasing.

JY: The distribution of yin and yang makes the four seasons. Whatever

belongs to the realm of life follows this operation, unable to be thus of

itself. But the Way dissolves into yin and yang; their production and
change are only in that which has form. The subtlety of the eternally living
and eternally evolving is not seen in this. The saying that yin and yang and
the four seasons are thus is minimalism.

A book of the Yellow Emperor says, “The valley spirit does not die—

ZZ: This book existed in ancient times, but is no longer extant. A valley is
empty yet lodges existence. This is also like Zhuangzi’s reference to the
center of a ring. As it is completely empty, nothing is there, so it is called
the valley spirit.

this is called the mystic female.

ZZ: Laozi has this passage: Wang Bi notes, “Formless, shadowless, never
refusing or opposing, staying humble, keeping calm without deterioration, a
valley is made this way without manifesting a form. This supreme being
remains humble and unnameable, so it is called the mysterious female.”
The opening of the mystic female is called the root of heaven and earth.
Continuous, as if it were there, its application is effortless.”

ZZ: Wang Bi says, “The opening is where the mysterious female comes
from; because its original source is the same as the absolute, it is called the
root of heaven and earth. Do you suppose it’s there? You don’t see its

form. Do you suppose it’s not? Myriad things are born through it. That is

why it is said to be continuous, as if there. Because it creates everything
without labor, it is called effortless.”
JY: A valley is empty but can echo, responding without reserve. As people
produce a mild energy, circulating throughout the body, in its going out and
in through the nose and mouth there is the image of a valley. The valley
spirit means the spirit of the valley; this is used to express attaining unity,
which cannot be fathomed because of its uncanny subtlety.

The valley spirit not dying is the way to long life and eternal vision.
The reason it is called undying is as follows. All living beings are
commanded by Creation and compelled by yin and yang: when they’re
born they cannot but be born, and when they die they cannot but die. Only
humans, as the most intelligent of all creatures, though having life at the
command of Creation like all beings, once alive have something Creation
cannot cause to die. That is to say, we share a single energy with heaven
and earth, which governs; if we preserve the basic root in ourselves, thus
our life is up to us, not subject to heaven and earth. If you can always
preserve the valley spirit, then you breathe from your heels and mellow
energy pervades your body. When the teacher of the Yellow Emperor
cultivated his body for twelve centuries without physical deterioration,

though he was mortal he entered into immortality; unborn, he is as eternal

as the Way. Therefore the valley spirit is not referred to as living, but as not
dying.

“Mysterious” represents heaven, “female” corresponds to earth.

The female is totally yin, but is the one that can reproduce life. In
metaphysics, yin precedes yang, so when reference is made to this thing’s
regeneration it is called “female,” the endless regeneration of the valley
spirit is the mysterious female. That is because when the subtlety of the
valley spirit is used in yourself it enlivens you, and when it is applied to
others it enlivens others. If you can keep that spirit present, how could
there be any end to its making life? Since its essential wonder is such, what
else but the mysterious female can constitute the gate of life? Speaking in
terms of exit and entry, going and coming, the valley spirit in us exits and
enters, going and coming without any interruption at all; if you can keep it
alive and undying, then the whole body’s processes of filling and emptying
are not controlled by Creation, and Creation is within us.

The reason heaven and earth can last forever is rooted in this Way,
so “the opening of the mysterious female is called the root of heaven of
earth; continuous, it seems to be there.” This is the substance of the valley
spirit; its application without effort is the Way of the valley spirit.
“Continuous” is used to express being slight yet not breaking. Being

gossamer, it “seems to be there,” yet is neither existent nor nonexistent.

Applying it without effort is what Mencius refers to as simply nurturing
without harm; the constituent energy cannot be left unused, and yet its use
should not be stressed. Not to use it would be like a fool who didn’t plant
seedlings; to use it with strain is like the fool who uprooted his sprouts by
tugging at them to hasten their growth. Only by using it effortlessly is it
possible to fill the space between heaven and earth.
The unborn seems singular;
ZZ: How can what is unborn actually be experienced? It seems to mean
indefinite oneness, with no beginning or end.
the unchanging is cyclic, with no final limit.
ZZ: Continuously in transition, matter and energy go on evolving, their
course never-ending.
No end can be found to the course of the seemingly singular.
ZZ: Yet how can we know if it has any end or not? It just subjectively
seems it is independent and unalterable, active everywhere without limit.
JY: Simply singular, it can therefore match and respond and be associated
with all that moves. This is what all things depend on, what the totality of
evolution relates to.

However, the Way does not match beings, being match themselves.
What the Old Master refers to as seeming to be the source of all things is

what is here referred to as seeming singular. Coming and going is what is

referred to as the beginningless cycle. Because its extent is endless and its
course is inexhaustible, it is eternally alive and always evolving.
De
“In ancient times, sages summed up heaven and earth in terms of yin and
yang. If what has form originates in no form, then where do heaven and
earth come from?
“Therefore it is said that there was a cosmic evolution, a cosmic origin, a
cosmic beginning, and a cosmic elemental. In the cosmic evolution, energy
is not yet manifest. The cosmic origin is the beginning of energy. The
cosmic beginning is the beginning of form. The cosmic elemental is the
beginning of substance.
JY: Brightness is born in the dark, the orderly is born in the formless. All
things are evolved by the universe, but while the universe produces myriad
things it is not separate from what has form. Since it has form, it cannot
have come from nothing. If it has an origin, then do we know where it
comes from? If no one knows where it came from, then to say that what
has form arises from formlessness is not reliable either.

The universe is the biggest of existents, hard to reach the end, hard
to fathom. It cannot be said to come from nowhere, but no one can see

where it comes from. If you can find out the principle of producing

production in your own individual being, then the universe and oneself are
born together. So how can it be unknowable?

Even so, the nonbeing of the cosmic beginning cannot be discussed
in words. What can be spoken of is only being as yet unformed. Therefore
the order is elucidated from cosmic evolution. But what are the so-called
cosmic evolution, cosmic beginning, cosmic origin, and cosmic elemental?
These too are based on the Great Way producing being from nonbeing;
based on the order of production, names are contrived for figurative
description, that’s all.

Evolution has no formal boundaries; evolution undergoes change
constituting a unity; the one changes into seven, seven turns into nine;
nine 8 change is final, then it reverts to one.

In standard numerical associations, one is the production number of water,
seven is the completion number of fire, nine is the end number of sky. In
alchemical tradition, in which the evolutionary process is internalized,
water stands for vitality, fire for spirit, sky for completion.

4.

This essay raises the question of what we know about the world around us,
and whether we see cause-effect relations in stereotypes that when
outmoded thwart our ability to see actual connections. The emphasis here

on the unexpected and the unthinkable stimulates questioning of specifics,

while the total scheme conveys the general idea of interrelatedness of all
things, their formation from elements and their dissolution into elements.
Hou Qi is alleged to have been the ancestor of the founders of the Zhou
dynasty, an expert at grain cultivation. He is supposed to have been
minister of agriculture for the ancient sage kings Yao and Shun, when he
taught people how to sow seed.

Yi Yin was a minister of the Shang dynasty, a respected savant, reputed
author of an early Taoist text.

5.

how can the self still be there?

One of the basic Buddhist meditations consists of analysis of
existence into elements, then examining them for self. A somewhat more
common version of this exercise, which is designed to overcome fixation on
self, is to imagine oneself dead and decomposing.

7.

Heres someone who can relax himself!

ZZ understands “relax yourself’ to imply finding solace. Is this a joke on
superficial Confucian scholars who say they’d like to reform the world, but
will settle for solace in a privileged position?

8.

Some see in this section a reflection of awareness of the Buddhist notion of
rebirth. The contentment expressed in having no wife or children,
moreover, a horror in conventional Chinese culture, may also reflect an
image of Buddhism. Chinese intellectuals were at first appalled by celibate
Buddhist renunciants; this passage of Master Lie may reflect a Buddhist
response, to refrain from reproducing as an expedient for freeing oneself
from social and economic pressures.

9.

Zigeng and Master Yan were distinguished disciples of Confucius. The
home-leaver is called wrong, as much as the ambition-seeker. Thus
‘balance in the center’ is the remedy, like the middle way of Buddhism.
This section therefore balances the preceding; together they illustrate the
progression from attachment to deliberate detachment to spontaneous
nonattachment, finally to reach the state of ‘being in the world but not of
the world.’

11.

Yu Xiong was a savant of the Zhou dynasty. Erstwhile teacher of King Wen
of Zhou, he was enfeoffed in Chu, a region culturally different in some
ways from the Zhou heartland, supposedly noted for shamanism. The
‘difference’ of Chu is a significant theme in Taoist literature.

12.

Changluzi was a Taoist from Chu who lived during the era of Warring
States, supposed to be author of a book bearing his name as a title.

Worry about the sky falling, also found in Western lore, is used at
one level to illustrate the fallacies of paranoid thinking. Here Master Lie
goes on to show how obsession with the unknowable impedes appreciation
of the evident.

13.

Shun is one of the three great leaders of ancient times—Yao, Shun, and Yu
—who represent transmission and succession of leadership on the basis of
merit rather than heredity. This segment illustrates a Taoist admonition to
rulers, that they don’t own what they have charge of, be it their systems,
their selves, or their successors. This acknowledgement of non-possession
is believed to enable a leader to make more objective decisions than a

narrow sense of self-interest might otherwise suggest.

II. The Yellow Emperor

l.

For material on the Yellow Emperor, see Ten Questions and Talk on
Supreme Guidance for the World in Sex, Health, and Long Life by Thomas
Cleary.

2.

The existence of mountainous isles of immortals in the ocean to the east
was taken literally by some people, notably the First Emperor of China and
the Martial Emperor of the Han dynasty.

The Tsuchi-no-kumo people of ancient Japan claimed to be
descendants of a prince of the proto-Chinese Zhou dynasty. If the journey
was possible one way, it could also be possible that people had come back
with stories of islands of Korea and Japan, which would have been less
populous and more peaceful than the Chinese Warring States.

Esoterically, this passage contains a number of exercises and
instructions for Taoist practices.

Ingesting air and dew stands for breathing exercises and swallowing
saliva. Swallow saliva is considered beneficial for the stomach and
digestion. It is particularly important when abstaining from grain and
dieting on fruits and nuts.

The mind like a deep spring is unruffled deep down even when the
surface is agitated.

The body like a virgin girl is not penetrated by external energies,
meaning that physical health is not ravaged by contact with the world.

Having no familiars or intimates refers to freedom from bias, and

also to nonattachment and objectivity. To have immortals and sages as

subjects means to be in command of one’s own spiritual and intellectual
faculties.

Not intimidating or getting angry is a means of saving energy, and
also an art of interaction. To have the eager and honest for servants means
to be in control of one’s intentions and attitudes.

Giving no charity yet sufficing everyone means acting justly. Not
accumulating or saving yet suffering no lack means spending wisely.

Harmony of yin and yang means appropriate proportions of rest and
activity, flexibility and firmness. Sun and moon always clear means that
intellect and intuition are both operative.

Regularity of the four seasons refers to regularity of rhythm of daily
activities and nocturnal rest; timely nursing refers to recuperation after
expending energy, before the onset of exhaustion and breakdown. Constant
abundance of crops means energy constantly renewed by good rhythm and
timely rest. No plague in the land and no early death means that these
habits are supposed to minimize illness and lessen causes of premature
death.

No pestilence among animals means that the physical appetites and
processes remain normal. No apparitions of ghosts means having no mental
abnormalities.

3.

These are instructions for meditation. Riding on the wind refers to
breathing exercises, walking in the sky refers to mental abstraction or
ecstasy. This does not refer to a final state; the merging of the sense
mentioned is a transitional experience, not intended to be a normative
condition. That is why, after “having made progress” Master Lie is said to
have returned riding on the wind, using intention to direct the mind, breath,
and bodily sense back to the ordinary world after having transcended it
mentally in a state of abstraction.
4.
The image of invulnerability to water and fire is fairly common in Buddhist
scriptures. In that context, water and fire stand for desire and anger; these
are the two emotions most involved in creating complications in life. Being
able to go through water and fire unscathed symbolizes being in the world
yet at the same time mentally transcendent, going beyond things without
fear.

Protection of pure energy means keeping mental energy inwardly
whole, not scattered, not sticking to things, not impinged upon by things.

Living by measure without excess refers to ordinary life science,
taking care of needs but not indulging in the unnecessary.

Taking refuge in a beginningless order means sensing this balance

inwardly, not imposing an arbitrary regime outwardly.

5:

This story represents a learning technique also used in Buddhism, known in
Sanskrit as samadhi or absorption. To become one with an art, the learner
becomes so absorbed as to become oblivious of all else while performing.
6.

This story symbolizes an ideal government of a diverse domain, illustrating
the principles of adapting to conditions and balancing natural tendencies.

7.

Like story number 5 preceding, this is an illustration of a learning
technique, aloof of the world while absorbed in an art, pure action free of
hope and fear, liberating natural capacity to the fullest.

8.

Destiny here, as elsewhere in Master Lie, refers to the sum of forces beyond
anyone’s dominion or control. What is already there refers to capacity,
which develops naturally with use. Development of capacity is possible,
but presumption of ultimate success is not.

9.

This is a portrait of a concentration technique. The famed Chan Buddhist
master Dahui, who had many lay disciples, often quoted ancient Buddhist
scripture saying, “If you put your mind on one point, there’s nothing that

cannot be accomplished.” The end of this story in Master Lie, implying

that concentration is required before higher things, also suggests a certain
order. Buddhist literature likens knowledge without concentration to a
candle in the wind. To be useful, higher knowledge requires a
corresponding stabilization of mind, it is held; but this can be developed in
a humbler context, as the story says, meaning the midst of the world and the
tasks therein. Even minor arts require concentration to perfect them; even
more so major arts.
10.
This story depicts mind-to-mind communication, which became a
watchword in Chan Buddhism. In martial arts, the ability to sense an
opponent’s intention while masking one’s own is a strategic art based on
energetic principles. Intent generates energy that can be sensed, it is
alleged, even before it takes shape in physical action. The next stage is that
of discerning the minute outward signs of inner movement, such as may be
observed in posture, gesture, expression, etc. These are some of the so-
called ‘tells’ of expert card players who use these observations to inform
their betting strategies.

The story concludes that perfect words make no claim and perfect
action has no contrivance to distinguish deliberate “perception
management” from heart-to-heart communication of true intent.

11.

A Buddhist image for enlightened existence in the ordinary world is that of
a lotus blooming in fire. In the story, the man’s ignorance, or innocence,
represents realization of emptiness. According to the Buddhist master
Nagarjuna, “emptiness is departure from all views.” In Master Lie, the
ability of Confucius to not do it represents the caveat with which Nagarjuna
follows up his definition of emptiness as departure from views: “but those
who make emptiness a view are incurable.” In Buddhist terms the miracle
man is what is called an arhat, someone who has escaped the limitations of
the world, so much so that he cannot even understand its problems
anymore. In Buddhist terms, Master Lie’s image of Confucius then
represent the bodhisattva who can enter the ultimate peace of nirvana at
will but also has the fortitude and will not to do so, instead remaining in the
world to work for the sake of others.
12.
Chan Buddhist lore also refers to being inscrutable to others by dint of inner
abstraction, yielding no information even on the most subtle level, thus
being impossible to “read.”

In political science, inscrutability is considered important for leaders
to elicit candor from subordinates by giving them no way to use flattery and

no way to anticipate anger.

Projection of various moods and attitudes to test people by their
reactions is also part of this aspect of political science. With familiars in
particular, superficial show is not necessarily enough to create the intended
impression, so deliberate manipulation of inner moods to project particular
impressions 1s also part of political science.

The Taoist Master of Demon Valley expounds these principles and
practices of testing people and finding out their real thoughts, including
techniques of concentration to develop the required mental skills. This
important text is translated in Thunder in the Sky.

According to Chan Buddhist tradition, once when a monk from
India, a canonical master, gained a reputation for mind-reading in Tang
dynasty China, the emperor of China introduced him to one of the National
Teachers, a high monk of the Chan sect of Buddhism.

“Tell me, where am I now?” the Chan master asked the Indian canon
master.

“You are the teacher of a whole nation,” replied the Indian monk;
“how can you go to Sichuan to watch boat races?”

The Chan master asked again, “Tell me, where am I now?”

The Indian monk said, “You are the teacher of a whole nation—how

can you watch the monkeys play on Tianjing Bridge?”

The Chan master asked a third time, as before. This time the
canonical master remained silent for a long time. In the end he couldn’t tell
where the Chan master had gone. The National Teacher scolded him, “You
sprite! Where is your mind-reading power?”

A later Chan master explained, “The first two times his mind was on
objects; the third time he entered self-experienced absorption, so he was
imperceptible.”

This inscrutability is typically summed up in the expression,
“Angels find no path on which to strew flowers, devils find no door through
which to spy.”

15.

Lao Dan is the Old Master, reputed author of the Tao Te Ching. He
declares Yang Zhu impossible to teach because he is inwardly full of
himself, while the worldly people react to the air of importance and the
mood of deflation he projects when affirmed and denied.

17.

This represents the original principles of Taijiquan and Jujutsu.

18.

This refutation of racism includes species bias; so it not only addresses the
problem of Han-centrism in China, which is still an express concern in the

modern Chinese constitution, but also the conceit of human rapacity

indulging itself at the expense of other species and the environmental basis
of all life.

Fu Xi, Nu Wa, Shen Nong, and Yu were ancient leaders and culture
heroes of Chinese myth and legend. Jie of Xia, Zhou of Yin, Huan of Lu,
and Mu of Chu, in contrast, were anti-heroes and villains of Chinese
tradition. The heroes appeared nonhuman but were humane, while the
villains appeared human but were bestial. This illustrates the Taoist
practice of considering substance more than form, character rather than
class.

The image of pristine harmony between humans and other animals
giving way to fear and avoidance can thus be taken as an analogical critique
of Chinese relations with other peoples, suggesting that inharmonious
relations were at least in part the fault of ethnocentric abuse of others, said
to be common during the Han and Jin dynasties, when Chinese of Qiang,
Hu, Di, and other minorities were treated by second-class citizens by the
Han elites.

19.

This story criticizes rulers who placated people by illusory changes in
policy without real effect. It also satirizes people who swallow their
illusions whole and don’t think about them.

20.

This story illustrates a principle of martial arts and military science
classically summarized as awaiting movement in a state of stillness. The
idea is to remain unmoved and induce an opponent to take on form first,
and then counter that initiative. The one who takes the initiative and
thereby takes on form is temporarily defined and limited by that
configuration, that commitment, so the strategy of counter-attack takes
advantage of that definition and limitation.
21.
Confucius and Mo Di were both revered as founders of influential
movements, although orthodox state Confucianism morphed into something
quite different from the teachings of Confucius, and the school of Mo Di
died out, in part by self-immolation. Confucius emphasized humanity and
justice, Mo Di practiced defense of the weak against aggression from the
powerful. Their teachings are more complex, but these basic attitudes are
what Hui Ang refers to in alluding to methods of self-preservation by
winning the goodwill of others through altruism. Hui Ang adds that with
the resources of kingship it should be possible to outdo Confucius and Mo
Di, providing only that the king actually have the will.

Here the mechanisms of inner sense and response, contextualized in
human and inter-species interaction, is set in the context of ruler-populace

relations. In that sense Hui Ang shows the king that force and coercion are

inefficient compared to charisma, in view of the relative expenditure of
energy; and that real charisma comes from intuitive sense and response,
rather than superficial assertion and insistence.

MI. King Mu of Zhou

1.

King Mu also appears in The Golden Broth of Buddhism, where he is
alleged to have had a dream vision of Buddha. The Far West is sometimes
said to be India, but here it probably refers to Central Asia.

According to Lost Stories of Immortals, a Taoist collection, “King
Mu of Zhou was named Man. He was born of Empress Pang, son of King
Zhao. When King Zhao failed to return from an inspection tour of the
South, King Mu then assumed the throne; he was fifty years old at the time.
He reigned for fifty-four years, to the age of one hundred and four.

“The king was attracted to the way of spiritual immortals in his
youth, and he always liked to travel around the land, after the manner of the
Yellow Emperor. So it was that he rode a wagon drawn by eight horses of
the finest quality, with Zao Fu [the archetypal charioteer] as his driver, to
the countries of the West. He caught a white fox and a black badger, which
he sacrificed to the source of the Yellow River.

“He directed his carriage across the Weak Water River, and turtles,

tortoises, and alligators formed a bridge; finally he went up Mortar

Mountain He also toasted the Matriarch of the West at Jade Pond.

“The Matriarch sang, ‘White clouds are in the sky. The road is very
long, punctuated by mountains and rivers; if you don’t die, you can come
again.’

“The king replied, ‘I’m going back East to harmonize the Chinese
states so that all the people are equal. I hope to see you; I’Il return in three
years.’

“He also went to Mt. Laishou and Mt. Taixing before finally
entering his ancestral Zhou.

“At that time Yin Xi had already crossed the Gobi Desert and was
living in a rustic abode north of Zhongnan. The king followed his old trail
and summoned the recluses Yin Yue and Du Zhong to live in the hermitage;
then he named it a cloister, and went there with them. Ji Fu came calling
from the game reserve of Zheng and cautioned him about the rebellion of
Xu Yuan, so the king returned to his country, and the ancestral shrines were
restored to safety.

“When the king went to the Kunlun Mountains, he drank stone
marrow from Bee Mountain, and ate the fruits of jade trees. He also
climbed Jade Cluster Mountain, where the Matriarch of the West lived.

“He had thoroughly mastered the way to make the spirit fly to

heaven, but he appeared to live in physical form simply in order to appear

to the people to have died.

“Indeed, he had drunk oil of jade, savored the taste of sweet snow,
white lotus, and black dates, green lotus-root and white citrus; all of these
are dishes of spiritual immortals—how could they not lengthen life?

“Tt is also said that the Matriarch of the West descended into the
palace of King Mu and they left together riding on the clouds.”

The Kunlun Mountains are an ancient source of jade, highly prized
in China, and the Kunlun came to be considered one of the abodes of
immortals. The Jade Pond is so named because jade was found in water in
Central Asia. The Matriarch is commonly said to be a goddess, but Celtic
legend and modern archeology confirm the existence of a skilled an artistic
people with fair hair, as the Matriarch is said to have had, in that time and
place. Ancient Celts called Tuatha De Danann, People of Divine Arts, are
said to have originated in Scythia, which could be understood to abut or
even include the oases of the Kunlun, and they are particularly associated
with Druidism, which had some demonstrable affinities to Taoism.

When he woke up, the king was still sitting where he had been
before, in the same company as before. When he looked in front of him, his
wine had not yet settled, the hors d’oeuvres were still fresh. The theme of

using a dreamlike state or hypnotic trance to test a prospective student is

found in various cultures and traditions. In Taoism, the dream of Lu
Dongbin is particularly famous (Cf. Vitality, Energy, Spirit, pp. 64-70)

2;

When Lao Dan went West refers to the story of Laozi, reputed author of the
Tao Te Ching, who is said to have left China because of the deteriorating
social and political conditions. He was later said to have gone to India, but
here the West most likely means Central Asia, seen as a sort of Shangri-la.
Five Emperors and Three Kings refer to Confucian culture heroes,
exemplary leaders of the past. There are several different lists of names for
each, as they are not usually elaborated but normally referred to generally in
a categorical or symbolic sense.

Some were magically accomplished—according to the Sanskrit Hitopadesa,
a famous book of practical and political science, “success may take place
even by subterfuge.”

3.

Buddhism uses the dream as a metaphor for the process of mistaking mental
phenomena for external objects, or cognitive representations of things for
things in themselves. The description or representation (vijnapti) that the
brain constructs of select data is the world as we cognize it. Taking that as
purely objective, without considering the role of perceptual and cognitive

selection and construction, is likened to being caught in a dream.

4.

What was called the nature vs. nurture debate in the West was also treated
in the East. Typically, however, while coming down on one side of the
argument this text is trying to balance an ambient bias, in this case prejudice
against ‘other’ peoples of different cultures. The idea that differences of
character come from adaptations to different environments removes the
noxious absolutism of racism, implying that people are malleable and
adaptable, and not inherently ‘good’ or ‘bad’ apart from any context.

5.

The idea that dream life could provide reflection of suppressed feelings
and/or a compensatory mechanism also occurred to psychoanalysts in the
West, who likewise thought that this recognition could suggest ways of
adjusting waking life to lessen subconscious tension.

6.

This story illustrates the construction of a conceptual reality from fragments
of experience grasped at second hand. It demonstrates the buildup of
conceptual and descriptive ambiguity and confusion, a commentary on
problems of information transmission, especially loss of content and
incorporation of interfering signals into the stream of communication and
interpretation.

T

This story contains a satire of the doctrine of inherited debt preached by the
Taoist cult of Celestial Masters. Adapted from the Buddhist doctrine of
karma and retribution, the doctrine of inherited debt holds that illness
results from wrongdoing. This accounts for such procedures as writing
confessions and solitary contemplation of one’s sins, as well as protective
charms against vengeful spirits, used by the healers of the Celestial Masters
sect. One point of this story is that the mental state created by
contemplating ‘inherited debt’ and considering illness a product of sin may
itself be morbid.

The characterization of the original ‘ailment’ of forgetfulness
represents a worldly view of unwordliness, while the sobriety of the ‘cure’
is worldliness as represented by the Confucians, whose profession is
associated with ruling and controlling the world. The Celestial Masters
movement was as Confucian as Taoist, as secular as sacred, in this sense,
that social organization, regulation of members’ lives, and hierarchical
government were always part of the movement.

From the point of view of healing, this story contrasts the quietistic
method with the contemplative method, in terms of predictable side-effects
and their potential consequences in stimulating a new cycle of illness.

From a cultic point of view, insofar as unsuccessful cures were blamed on

the patient, the sense of regret and remorse may make the patient sicker but
also more dependent upon the ministration of the cult.

8.

The gentlemen of Lu refers to Confucians, particularly Han-centric
absolutist pedants. Lao Dan is supposed to be Laozi, who typically deflates
absolutism. Lao Dan cites relativity as a reality, not a rationalization of
subjective self-affirmation; he does not say there is no sanity or madness,
but that the crucial question is their relative proportion.

9.

This story illustrates the power of suggestion overriding reality. Modern
experiments validate this observation. In one study subjects who were told
they were going to hear the sound of a cat purring were pleased by the
sound of a man snoring, while subjects told they were going to hear the
sound of a man snoring were displeased by the sound of a cat purring.

IV. Confucius

l.

This story suggests that even if a specific system cannot by its very nature
be absolute, that does not mean it has no relative value. In Buddhist terms,
this is conventionally referred to as transcending the world without
destroying the features of the world.

2:

A fuller version of this encounter, in the text entitled The Master of the
Hidden Storehouse, also illustrates the principle of transcending the world
without destroying its features. It begins with the master mourning one of
the associates of Laozi; an apprentice asks, “Everyone in the world dies—
why do you mourn him?” The master answered, “Everyone in the world
mourns; how can I not mourn?” The apprentice said, “But mourners grieve,
whereas you have never sorrowed; what about that?” The master replied, “I
have no pleasure or happiness with anyone in the world—what would bring
on sorrow? Remove the solid, and there is liquid; remove liquid, and there
is gas. Remove gas, and there is emptiness; remove emptiness, and there is
the Way. The Way is the means of preserving the spirit. Virtue is the
means of broadening capacity. Etiquette is the means of equalizing
manners. Things are the means of supporting the body. In something that
should be white, blackness is considered pollution; in something that should
be black, whiteness is considered pollution. So how do we know what in
the world is truly pure or polluted? For this reason, I do not focus solely on
the purity or pollution of things. Those whose vision is dim mistake yellow
for red and blue for grey. Now how do we know that what we call black
and white would not be considered red and yellow by the perceptive? And
how do we know what in the world are true colors? For this reason, I do

not get lost in the colors of things. Those whose fondness for money is

extreme do not see anything else as likeable; those who fondness for horses
is extreme do not see anything else as likeable; those whose fondness for
books is extreme do not see anything else as likeable. So how do we know
what in the world is actually likeable or detestable? For this reason I do not
see anything to be attached to. Nothing can mix me up!” Thunder in the
Sky pp. 102-103

3.

The Three Kings here refers to the founders of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou
dynasties, the classical age of Chinese history. The Five Emperors of high
antiquity are variously listed, as are the culture heroes known as the Three
August Ones.

The statement There is a sage among the people of the West,
according to a Buddhist collection called The Gold Broth of Buddhism,
alludes to the historical Buddha.

4.

Zixia, You Hui, Zigeng, Zilu, and Zizhang were all noted disciples of
Confucius.

13.

Han Tan and Gongsun Long were logicians. The image of the archer hitting
arrow after arrow in succession to form a solid line of arrows that never hits

the ground is a very clever illustration of the Buddhist doctrine that

cognitive reality is based on a subjectively constructed continuity of
conception linking successive perceptions into an internally consistent
picture, never ‘hitting the ground’ of objective reality.

V. Questions of Tang

1.

Tang of Yin (r. 1766-1753 BCE) was the founder of the Shang dynasty
(1766-1122 BCE). Ji of Xia was one of his officers.

Nu Wa was a legendary prehistoric leader, pictured as a woman.
Gonggong was a legendary figure of a different ethnic group. Zhuanxu, an
ancient chieftain, is reckoned in some lists as one of the Five Emperors of
antiquity.

Bo Yi was the ancestor of the royal family of Qin, traditionally
pictured as an expert in herding and hunting, put in charge of supervising
mountains and wilds by king Shun (2255-2205 BCE)

Yi Jian was a legendary encyclopedist.

The Master of Expanded Development was traditionally portrayed
as a teacher of the Yellow Emperor, supposed to have lived for more than
twelve centuries.

This story emphasizes the roles of history and environment in

conditioning people and other forms of life. This understanding helps

overcome chauvinistic bias, wherein the familiar becomes unconsciously
absolutized as the standard against which everything is judged.

2;

This story alludes to the relativity of time and the practical difference
between a narrow short-term view and a broad long-term view, in respect to
the energy that can be released and directed to a given end.

3.

This story seems to suggest some sort of awareness of societies and
civilizations preceding the ancient dynasties, consciousness of gigantic
achievements of the immemorial past, now become part of the
surroundings. This theme of worlds and events in an inconceivably remote
past having produced conditions of the present is prominent in Ekayana
Buddhist scriptures. Archeological finds confirm civilizations along the
Yellow River long before the Xia dynasty.

4.

This point-counterpoint illustrates the Buddhist proposition that conditional
origination implies emptiness of inherent existence.

5.

Guan Zhong (Guan Yiwu, or Guanzi, Master Guan) was a minister of Duke

Huan of the state of Qi (r. 685-643 BCE). Guan devised a program for

enriching and strengthening the state. Xi Peng was also an assistant to
Duke Huan.

6.

Made into policies by rulers, these are made into customs by subjects, and
so nothing to wonder at. This is another critique of the limitation of Han-
centrism, explaining customs as human artifice, representative of
differences that are acquired and not intrinsic.

7.

This story illustrates how logic can be limited by its premises, as reasoning
can be logical in its own terms and yet lead to false conclusions because of
faulty framing of the problem under consideration.

8.

This story represents the ‘soft art.’ Applied to physical health, it means
adjusting sensitively to minute changes to minimize the stress of resistance.
Applied to statesmanship, it represents balancing the forces of state
structure by means of each other, rather than be crushed or torn asunder by
standing between them trying to control them separately.

9.

JY: “In the overall process from birth to death, people change again and
again; if you look upon your childhood from the perspective of old age, the

differences in appearance and intelligence are even greater than the two

men whose bodies were switched. However, the course of change in the
overall process is in minute shifts, and since people base their perceptions
on them, they are unaware of the changes. Here where the physician has
replaced their hearts, however, everyone is surprised by the change because
it is so sudden.”

13.

Pan Yu and Mo Di were military engineers. The dismantling of the manikin
represents a Buddhist meditation technique of analysis, in which the
practitioner inwardly analyzes body and mind into elements to observe that
an absolute self or soul cannot be located in any element, or indeed in any
combination of elements.

14.

This story illustrates the origin of esotericism as a protective device, to
eliminate the factor of competition and struggle for supremacy, excluding
those who approach an art for purposes of personal aggrandizement or
aggression against others. This is why candidates for mystic sciences
associated with power are tested so severely.

15.

This story illustrates the technique of ‘using intent, not strength’ that

underlies the soft martial arts This technique saves energy, and is used in

‘lightening’ the body for health purposes by reducing the complex of gross
muscular tensions experienced as weight or heaviness in movement.
16.
This story illustrates the martial art of diankong that works by attacking
sensitive points to paralyze muscles by interfering with nerves. Some also
see in this a sort of parody of popular rebellions against the Han dynasty
that did not manage to destroy tyranny but did weaken the dynasty.
17.
The West refers to Central Asia, a major source of jade. The red edge on
the knife was probably corundum or ruby dust. Ruby is the gem quality of
corundum and is considerably harder than jade and jadeite, suitable for
creating an abrasive tool for the notoriously difficult task of working jade.
Notice of a Central Asian ambassador to China in a Taoist history also
mentions a diplomatic gift of a Central Asian glue of extraordinary strength,
described in terms that suggest it could have been used to fix corundum or
ruby dust to steel. The cloth laundered in fire was woven of asbestos fibers.
VI. Effort and Destiny

The word for destiny or fate means order or imperative; in this
usage it was anciently thought of as a divine command. In Buddhism,
among five inconceivables is listed cause and effect, meaning that even a

Buddha cannot fully understand the totality of cause and effect relations.

This is to be understood in a context of intensive investigation of causality,
and does not imply fatalism at all, but rather acknowledgement of human
limitation. The range of causal factors beyond our ken may be called
destiny or fate, according to our perceptions. Here in Master Lie, destiny is
cited in unspoken contrast to three contemporary belief systems: the
Legalistic doctrine of containing all activity within a humanly constructed
rule of law; the Confucian concept of human organizations being sustained
by a divine order that would respond to certain behavior with specific
results; and the immortalist concept of countermanding the natural order by
deliberate practices.

In sum, the concept of destiny or fate in Master Lie is not a mark of
fatalism, but a challenge to absolutist concepts of control and causation.
Neither the moral determinism of Confucianism nor the psychological
determinism of Legalism had produced the society they had envisioned; and
no philosophy accounted entirely for the ups and downs of human affairs.
l.

Destiny’s concluding remarks in this story reveal the nature of the teaching
presented here. Destiny may overrule effort, but that does not imply an
external omnipotent will with a fixed agenda. Here, ‘destiny’ is a default
term, and what it signifies does not replace effort or reduce it to

meaninglessness, but requires a larger perspective on effort, and a more

flexible understanding than simplistic schemes of punishment and reward
such as were invoked and applied by the Legalist doctrine of state on the
human level, and by the Celestial Masters cult in supernatural terms.

The Sanskrit Hitopadesa is adamant about the ignorance of those

who give up effort believing in fate. According to the 17" century Japanese
Confucian Yamaga Soko, ‘making peace with destiny’ refers to destiny as
the action of nature that is beyond human capacity. Psychologically, he
interprets this is a counter to resentment and bitterness, not an admonition
to resign intention and effort.
3.
Guan Yiwu was Guan Zhong, a famous practical philosopher of the seventh
century BCE, cited above in note V.5. The work associated with his name,
augmented in later times, has been labeled Taoist as well as Legalist. For
the specifically Taoist portions of the classic, see The Way of the World:
Readings in Chinese Philosophy.

The notion of people acting as they do because they have no choice
under the circumstances prevailing, by appearing as one extreme, presents a
counterpoint to a traditional Chinese model of history that emphasizes
individual persons as history makers and authors of their own ethical
choices. While this view lends itself to moralizing, as was the wont of

Confucians, it can convey the impression of personality, character, and

motive as being prime movers, with inadequate consideration of the
conditions that form people and influence their actions. Personal
philosophies or preferences may not exert as much influence on actions as
other factors, hence this story illustrates how the force of circumstances
cannot be ignored even if personal qualities factor into political
considerations.

4.

This story also illustrates the idea that the sum total of forces in any
situation, the structure of necessities, possibilities, and perils created by
conditions, is larger than any of the players, whose roles and relations may
therefore alter unforeseeably, or uncontrollably.

5.

This story also emphasizes the idea that the totality of causality is not
entirely within human control, whether individual or collective; this
principle of uncertainty is represented by the concept of destiny or fate in
order to modify the influence of presumptions and expectations.

6.

This story seems to refute the common notion of supernatural causes of
illness, an idea cults relied upon heavily in magical curing practices. There
is a famous story in early Chan Buddhist tradition that invokes the

background belief in sin being the cause of sickness, and illustrates the

meditation used by the last doctor. A layman came to the Second Patriarch
of Chan and said, “I am sick all over. Please absolve me.” The Patriarch
said, “Bring me your sin and Pll absolve you of it.” After a long silence,
the man said, “When I look for my sin, I can’t find it.” The Patriarch said,
“T’ve absolved you of your sin.” Then the patriarch taught him that ‘mind
is Buddha, mind is the teaching.’ The man said, “Today for the first time
I’ve realized that sinfulness is not on the inside, not on the outside, and not
in between.” After that his illness gradually remitted.

A story is also told of the Second Patriarch of the Tiantai school of
Buddhism, Huisi, illustrating the introspective contemplation referred to in
the Chan story as ‘looking for my sin.” Once Huisi became so weak he
couldn’t even get up and walk after a meditation intensive. Then he
reflected, “Sickness arises from karma, karma comes from mind; if the
mental source is not agitated, what are external objects like? Sickness,
karma, and the body too are all like shadows of clouds.” After practicing
this contemplation, he recovered. His disciple Zhiyi, famed as the de facto
founder of the Tiantai school and author of the monumental Stopping and
Seeing series of manuals on meditation, came from a Taoist family and
included Taoist healing visualizations of the internal organs in his
meditation instructions. See Sitting Meditation for some of these practices.

T

Formulas for physical culture and immortalism abound, but they are not
guaranteed to work automatically. It’s better not to look to divine will and
try to figure out gain and loss means that informed reason is more effective
than superstition when it comes to maintaining health.

8.

Here the idea of destiny is used to maintain emotional and intellectual
equilibrium in face of changing conditions. This makes it possible to
maintain the will, because it cannot be crushed by the frustration of
expectations. Therefore the trust in destiny spoken of here is not fatalism
but freedom—who can block the way?

9.

This story illustrates the handicapping effect of blind belief in destiny.
Each of the characters thinks his own way is right and sufficient, as if it
were his destiny, thus failing to learn and communicate, synthesize and
integrate, because of the preconception that a personal inclination is
destined or fated to be. In historical context, this story satirizes the political
philosophers who each claimed to have the Way, and who all failed to save
society from disintegration.

10.

The Buddhist Sandhinirmocana-sutra says, “Enlightened beings do know

the bliss of nirvana very well and can quickly realize it, yet they relinquish

immediate experience of the state of bliss and rouse a mind of great
aspiration to benefit living beings, without object, without expectation, and
therefore remain in the midst of many kinds of suffering over a long time.”
(Buddhist Yoga pg. 75)
11.
This is a commentary on the folly of immortalism. A ruler may wish to live
forever, but if that were possible there would already be an immortal ruler.
12.
Changes in conditions appear differently depending on the point of
comparison. When nothing can be done about an event, it may be possible
to understand it or accept it to a greater or lesser extend depending on the
context in which it is considered.
VII. Yang Zhu

An academic convention concerning the doctrines of Yang Zhu is to
construct an image of Yang Zhu from the description of Mencius and then
wonder at this book of Master Lie.
l.
Guan Zhong initiated reforms in Qi, in the 7™ century BCE, establishing
government monopolies and instituting economic warfare on other states.

Qi was greatly strengthened by such measures.

Mr. Tian was Tian Cheng, a minister of the state of Qi in the 5"
century BCE. In 481 he assassinated the lord of Qi, set up a successor of
his own choice, and took over as prime minister. Eventually his great-

grandson Tian He became a feudal lord and ruler of Qi.

Yao and Shun were ancient rulers, allegedly of the 3" millennium
BCE. Xu You and Shan Juan were recluses. Bo Yi and Shou Qi were
nobles of the Shang dynasty who wouldn’t join the new Zhou order when it
supplanted the Shang politically, considering it disloyal to do so. Hence
they are considered purists, but they ‘refused to eat the grain of Zhou’ and
died of starvation in the mountains
3.
Contemplating rotting corpses and skeletons was a standard part of early
Buddhist meditation, either in actual graveyards or by visualization. In
actual practice, such a negative meditation is supposed to be followed up by
positive meditations on kindness and compassion. This story makes the
point that sameness in death does not imply sameness in life, that our
destiny to die does not render the present life indifferent or meaningless, but
rather the opposite—the inevitability of death for good and bad alike
implies that whatever choices we have, moral or otherwise, are all played

out in the context of life. This contemplation of death and concluding focus

on life thus parallels the Buddhist practice of contemplating death followed
by cultivation of friendliness and compassion.

4.

Bo Yi and Liu Xiahui represent extremes of moralism. Yuan Xia and
Zigeng were disciples of Confucius.

6.

While this story is often very effective as a test, the crux is in the contrast
between internal versus external control, natural order versus imposed
regime.

7.

With the amassing of enormous fortunes by a few, and the development of
chronic poverty among the multitudes, redistribution of wealth was
necessary for social stability. This might be done through land
redistribution programs enacted by the government, or by clan or religious
organizations, or by private charity. Some of the people considered saints
in Taoist traditions were Confucian officials who actually put humanitarian
teachings into practice and helped the needy. In this story, the rich man
distributed his excess wealth without considering it charity, or covert
commerce. This reflects an analogy of the Buddhist concept of perfect
charity characterized by so-called emptiness of the three spheres, meaning

charity given without the sense of self as being generous, without a view of

others as being needy, and without either pride or regret at the value of the
gift.

8.

Even a hundred years is too long, to say nothing of the misery of perpetual
life. This is an ironic twist on the argument about immortality—not
whether it’s possible, because it’s not—even if it were, what would be the
point?

9.

This is a study in balancing extremes, and a representation of the relativity
of reason to context. Lao Dan is Laozi, Guan Yu is Guan Zhong. Both are
associated with self-preservation. Great Yu was responsible for controlling
flood waters in antiquity, Mo Di was leader of a band of volunteer warriors
who defended the weak against the strong during the Era of Warring States;
thus both represent service of others.

This story seems to contrast these two standpoints, self-preservation
and service of others, but in doing so conserves both as contexts calling for
conclusions consistent with themselves but not over-generalized to
universals. Generalization into universals pits them against each other;
consistency with their own contexts enables them to complement one
another. Since both self-preservation and service to society are normal

parts of life, varying in proportion from time to time but nonetheless

mutually interdependent, therefore conserving the functions of both is better
than dissipating their energy in mutual antagonism.

10.

This story questions idealization of sagehood as a magical condition, and
idealization of material prosperity and pleasure. It deflates the notion that
the ideal state runs itself while the sage ruler does nothing; and the notion
that people’s worth is reflected by their rewards in life.

12.

The Three August Ones, Five Emperors, and Three Kings, as classical
models of Confucian ideology, are cited here to represent ideological
structuring of views. This story highlights the folly of ideological conflict,
as it can consume all sense of meaning, robbing the obsessed of any other
purpose in life, including the basic experiences of life itself, sacrificed for
the sake of an imaginary ideal.

15.

This story takes another look at reputation and reality. While it typically
rebukes the folly of concern for reputation at the expense of reality, a way
of life providing no peace, yet it is careful to conserve an objective
understanding of the reality of reputation. Slander and libel are illegal, not
because they injure self-esteem, but because they compromise the ability to

make a living and otherwise function normally in society. While it is folly

to pursue a false or vain reputation, that doesn’t mean that the consensual
reality of reputation and its consequences can be safely ignored.

VIII. The Tally of the Teaching

1.

This story illustrates the principle of ‘arriving first by leaving last,’ used in
martial arts to signify the tactic of remaining still while awaiting movement
on the part of the opponent, then countering that movement. The idea is to
have the opponent take the initiative, as doing so creates a form, making a
counter-strike possible.

2

Observe exits to know entries, observe goings to know comings means to
examine past history to predict future behavior.

3.

The Tao Te Ching says, “If you know when you have enough, you won’t be
disgraced; if you know when to stop, you won’t be endangered. This way
you can live a long time.”

4.

Sages do not examine survival and destruction, they examine the reasons
for them. Focus is on cause rather than result, because thinking about the
desired result can distract and disrupt the operation of concentration on the

means of attaining that aim.

6.
Considering the quantity of produce required to feed and clothe a person for
three years, this story provokes a consideration of the productivity of the
earth. One of the traditions of Legalism and Taoism is that commercial art
and luxury trade should not supersede basic production as the foundation of
the economy, as this would make a state dependent on others for a
sufficiency of foodstuffs and raw materials.
10.
...all the thieves fled to Qin. This is an excellent crack at Qin Legalism.
The policy of Qin, based on the Legalist doctrines of The Lord of Shang,
was to take from others, luring population with exemptions, draining other
states of basic goods by market manipulation, and taking land by
expansionist warfare.
12.
The Duke of Bai was a grandee of Chu during the Era of the Warring
States. He tried to engineer a coup, but was thwarted and strangled himself
to death in his bathhouse.

Confucius is here portrayed as a perceptive, exercising extreme
caution in responding to the Duke lest he get caught up in a plot, yet
making his point, however subtly and however futilely, to warn the Duke

against rash ambition.

13.

The Di were tribes living in several of the pre-Chinese states during the
Zhou dynasty.

19.

The Tao Te Ching says, “Sages want not to want, and do not value hard-to-
get goods. They learn not to imitate, and reform the mistakes of the
crowd.”

20.

While they use different rationales, in each case the killers decide to kill.
The story illustrates how a foregone conclusion or inherent bias may remain
unaltered in changing situations, as it summons suitable rationales to assure
arriving at the intended conclusion in any event.

21.

This story represents a powerful argument against leaving
misunderstandings, false assumptions, and circumstantial evidence
unexamined and uncorrected.

23.

The Tao Te Ching says, “Which is more important, your name or your
body?”

25:

Unity was considered a political ideal, but its interpretation differed. In
stereotyped terms, Legalism and Confucianism would impose unity, the
former by law and the latter by ritual, whereas Taoism would discover it as
an organic reality underlying difference. In actuality even theorists tended
to combine these approaches to unity.

27.

Both Buddhism and Taoism recommend secret charity for this reason.

32.

This story illustrates the phenomenon of the ‘tell,’ when someone with a
secret is unable to contain excitement, so that inward agitation creates an
outward manifestation.

34.

Physiognomy and reading of bodily postures and movements were
practiced in India as well as China. This practice is originally based on the
‘tell’? phenomenon noted above, but it can be distorted. This story
illustrates the problem of underlying attitudes or assumptions dictating

terms of interpretation.